


Just To Be With You

by btp248



Category: Band of Brothers
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Humor, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-07
Updated: 2013-11-07
Packaged: 2017-12-31 19:09:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 40,322
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1035342
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/btp248/pseuds/btp248
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>College student Babe Heffron makes a drunken mistake one night that sends the one he loves into the arms of another. Now he has to chase him across Europe to tell him how he feels before it's too late. Seriously AU with various pairings and shenanigans.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I’m not making any money off of writing this story. It’s entirely fictional and based on the performances given in the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers and not the actual soldiers. I don’t own anything….so please don’t sue me. I wrote it for your enjoyment so…enjoy!

 

 

It was going to be a really, really awesome day. Babe could feel it. He had just finished acing his English Lit. final- his last exam for the semester- and he was ready to just kick back and relax with his buddies for the summer. 

In fact he was so excited about today that he nearly broke the door to his apartment down as he rushed in. 

“Guys today is THE day! I’m serious this time!” he called out excitedly.

His roommates didn’t really seem to share his enthusiasm however, probably because they were still studying for their finals….losers. In fact Babe’s best friend Bill Guarnere looked about ready to punch him in the face. 

Only they’d been best friends since Babe was 2 and Bill was 4 and Babe could safely say that he’d been getting that look since…well probably since he was 2. The point was that he had amazingly survived to be 19 so he wasn’t too worried.

“Shut yer fucking yapper Babe,” Bill growled at him as he turned back to his notes, “the plane ain’t even left the goddamn ground yet.”

A laugh came from the floor of the living room where Babe’s other roommate George Luz was sitting. He smirked at Babe, “Yeah and the last time I checked you were way too pussy to actually say anything. “ 

Babe glared at both of them, “Y’know what? Fuck you guys. A little support would be real fucking swell if you think you could manage it.” He kicked Luz’s book shut as he crossed the living room to flop onto their crummy couch. 

The reason that today was going to be a miraculous day had a lot to do with an airplane. Because on this airplane was one of the greatest obstacles in the road to Babe’s happiness. This obstacle was a girl. This girl’s name was Renee. Yet none of that was going to matter because in a few hours the aircraft harboring Renee would be taking her back to France…or Belgium or wherever the hell it was that she lived. Only then would everything fall into place. 

You see about a year and a half ago, when Babe had first started college, he had met someone.

Eugene Roe was a pre med major about a year older than Babe and they had met through Bill’s strange group of friends at a party. A year and a half later and Babe could easily say that Gene was his favorite person in the whole world. 

They had gotten close fast and spent the better part of that first year dancing around one another waiting for the other to make a move. It seriously irritated their friends. The only problem was…neither of them ever took the first step. Babe had waited too long. That was where Renee came in. 

Now Babe didn’t actually have anything against Renee. She was nice and charming and as a person, Babe liked her. However she was also beautiful…and French. Eugene had met her on a blind date that one of his pre-med buddies set him up on. They’d been together ever since. Now that he thought about it Babe supposed that he could hold the whole ‘dating the object of his affection’ thing against her. Just a little bit. But now she was going back to France, or Belgium, or…somewhere in Europe and they were breaking up. 

Luz snapped his book shut and stood up, “Well fellas I’m gonna go take my last exam. Wish me luck. Oh and don’t worry Babe we’ll get Doc so fucking tanked tonight that he might not reject you!” Babe responded by throwing an empty coke can at his head. Finally their mess was becoming useful. 

“Yeah thanks a lot you prick,” He snapped at his retreating friend, “I hope you fucking fail!” 

Bill just smirked and shook his head, “I’m going to scram too.” He started to leave but paused to look at Babe seriously, “Hey Babe…are you sure you wanna do this tonight? I mean…she just left.”

Babe looked at the ground for a moment. He had thought about that- he really had. Eugene really liked Renee. It was just that Babe was afraid that if he didn’t speak up about his feelings soon, he’d lose his nerve. He nodded and smiled at Bill, “We’ll see how it goes.”

 

 

When it came to parties, it was universally agreed that Lewis Nixon’s were the best for two very important reasons. First being that he always had a lot of booze….like a lot of booze. Secondly his apartment was fucking huge which meant there was usually an extra room that could be used for ….stuff. Nixon had parents that he generally despised and he never really felt bad about wasting their money. 

Babe was starting to feel a little anxious. He had been here for about 45 minutes and Gene still wasn’t there. He knew he was coming because just a few hours ago he had called Babe to make sure that Babe was going to be there. But Gene still wasn’t there. Babe looked at his empty beer can. 

If he was going to do this then he might as well drink up some courage….maybe something a little stronger than beer. 

 

 

So 2 hours, half a bottle of Absolute vodka, a soda, a bag of Doritos and four bathroom breaks later he was having troubling remembering his Babe….wait….his name…what was it? He needed to sit. The floor looked nice. 

Suddenly someone grabbed his arm and steered him towards the couch and away from his equally sloshed friends. Wait who…oh it was Dick. 

Dick Winters was one of Bill’s good friends that Babe liked but didn’t really have a lot in common with. Also, aside from Carwood Lipton, Dick Winters was Gene’s best friend. 

“Babe what are you doing? You’re only 19 you shouldn’t be drinking.” Dick’s voice was gentle but it was obvious that he was disappointed-probably more in Bill than in Babe. Slowly he helped Babe sit on the couch next to their only slightly inebriated host. Who’d probably been drinking since finals got out. 

Nixon looked up at his boyfriend as Babe was plopped down next to him. “What are you giving me that look for?” He asked Dick who just shook his head. 

“He’s drunk Lew.” He stated simply. Nixon just nodded slowly.

“Yeah I’m not surprised he’s been hitting it pretty hard all night. What’s the problem-it’s a party Dick people drink.” He said only to smile as Dick gave him another look. “I mean normal people who aren’t you. You should sit next to me and let somebody else babysit him. Okay?” 

Dick just shook his head, “That’s not the problem remember? What Eugene said?” 

From the look on Nixon’s face it was obvious that he didn’t remember, nor did he care. Suddenly Dick crouched down in front of Babe and snapped his fingers softly to get his attention. Babe looked at him. He was saying something about…something….important…Gene…..what? 

Babe didn’t pay ‘attention’ too much longer because right behind Dick’s head was Eugene himself and really-looking at Eugene was much better than talking about him. 

He looked good, but he always looked good. He was wearing that brown leather jacket Renee had gotten him for Christmas…one of the things Babe had approved of her giving him. 

Dick looked over his shoulder to see what Babe was looking at and sighed. “Don’t forget what I told you,” He said but Babe still wasn’t listening. Gene was coming right towards them. He was looking right at Babe.

By the time Gene actually made his way over to the couch, Babe had already snagged and downed two open beers that were in arms reach. He couldn’t do this….

“Heya Babe,” Gene’s soft Cajun accent greeted him. He looked down at Babe with a smile, “Can I talk to you for a minute?” 

Babe just nodded but didn’t move. Gene reached a hand out to him, Babe took it and allowed himself to be pulled slowly off the couch as Gene proceeded to weave them through their various friends and fellow party goers to that ever present room a little further away from the party. 

Unfortunately Luz was already inside with some of his poker buddies. He looked up when they entered and gave Babe a curious look but made no move to leave. Gene sighed, rolled his eyes and dug into his pocket. 

“Twenty bucks into the pot if you guys take it elsewhere.” Gene was paying to get them out. Was he psychic? Wait….was Babe…ASLEEP? And y’know….dreaming?

“Sure you bet.” Luz mumbled hopping up off the floor and snatching the $20 out of Gene’s hands, his friends on his heels. As he passed Babe he smiled and gave him a thumbs up.

The door shut behind them with a thud and all of a sudden the noise that had been so loud and pulsing in Babe’s head seemed to cease all at once. He stumbled forward a little and tripped onto the bed that he figured was in the guest room because no way would Nixon let anyone into his room. Gene moved to his side quickly to help him sit up.

“Easy there Babe, are you okay?” Gene asked him softly and although Babe didn’t look up at him he knew he was being stared at intensely. He just nodded in response to Gene’s question. He was doing a lot of nodding tonight. 

“Are you sure?” Gene pressed on, looking concerned, “You seem awfully quiet. I mean usually I’m the quiet one remember?” That made Babe smile because it was true. Normally Babe talked a mile a minute. Gene only talked to say important things. He cleared his throat.

“Nah I’m…okay,” Babe replied. Now that was just lame…he had to be wasted. “I mean, how – how are you? I mean with Renee…y’know.”

‘Oh way to go slick….bring up the last person you want him thinking about.’ Babe grumbled in his head.

Gene pursed his lips and slid over so that he was sitting side by side with Babe. Heaving another sigh he covered his eyes with his hands and fell back onto the bed. 

“I’m not sure…” he started slowly, “I was..I am…really in love with Renee. Watching her get on that plane was one of the hardest things I’ve done in a really long time. That’s why I wanted to talk to you Babe. I think…I think I might ask her to marry me.”

Oh. OH. Babe didn’t want to hear this. This was why he wanted to talk to him? He started to shake his head. He couldn’t do this. Not now. Not ever. 

“But not if you tell me I shouldn’t.” Gene had sat up and was now looking at Babe with an expression that Babe knew all too well. Because Gene looked scared.

“Huh?” Babe was…confused…again. And really not racking up any intelligence points with his ever so stupid responses. 

Gene slid off the bed and onto the floor, not taking his eyes off Babe for one second. Babe’s stomach was not feeling very happy right now. It was kinda freaking out. Along with the rest of him.

Gene took Babe’s hands into his and stared at them for a moment. Babe couldn’t breathe...or think. 

“You are one of the most amazing people I know Babe. You’re all these things that I’m not. You’re funny, free spirited and honest. When I’m around you I feel like I could be those things too. We’ve been such good friends for such a long time. We make great friends-but I think,” Gene paused for a moment and looked up at Babe through dark lashes, “I think that we could do…better. Than just friends.”

Gene stopped again and it was obvious that he was really nervous. There were so many things that Babe wanted to say….but he couldn’t. Why couldn’t he? Holy crap his stomach was SO pissed at him right now…how much had he drank? Wait...not important…Eugene was talking…oh crap..

“What I’m trying to say is…while I love Renee more than anyone I’ve ever been with, while I’m ready to take a huge step with her. All I’ve ever really wanted was a chance with you. There’s just been so many things keeping me from asking for it until now. If you give me that then…then I won’t have a reason to marry Renee. I just want to have one chance.”

Gene seemed to notice that Babe wasn’t reacting much. Suddenly Gene looked a little more than nervous. Holy crap- Babe needed to say something. Why couldn’t he talk? He couldn’t even think…

“Babe…say something.” Gene looked so scared. 

Babe tried to say something. ‘ I love you- please don’t marry her- I feel the same-I have for so long’.

Oh god his stomach. He clutched a hand to his mouth. “I’m going to be sick.” 

He couldn’t throw up, not in front of Gene. He staggered to his feet and fled to the closest bathroom, leaving Gene behind staring blankly at the spot on the bed where he had been. 

 

Babe had been vomiting for what felt like forever. One thing about drunken puking was that it tended to make you forget who you were, where you were and what you were doing there…and where you were. 

He didn’t even know what he was puking into much less who was talking to him. One thing he DID know was that whoever it was must really hate him because the knocking and the yelling only made him feel worse. 

“Babe!? Are you okay?”

No…he wasn’t...he wanted to die….so that he would stop puking. Who was Babe?

“That’s it I’m going in there.”

“Damn Bill-be more of a mother hen- seriously go ahead. The kid’s fine…just a little wasted. It happens.”

“I don’t know Luz, he’s been in there for a long time man.”

“Tab shut up! I’m trying to stop Bill’s-“

“OH GOD! ALL OF YOU SHUT UP!” Babe hollered hoarsely at the voices. Before promptly passing out.

 

 

“Babe? You awake yet buddy?”

Oh man…he felt…very bad. 

As he struggled to open his eyes, Babe tried to figure out who was talking to him.

“Bill?” Babe pushed himself into a sitting position and looked around. Well...he was back at his apartment and his head hurt a lot. So…hangover much? 

Slowly he turned his head towards Bill, who had pulled a chair up next to Babe’s bed. 

“What happened man?” He asked as he accepted the glass of water Bill was handing to him. 

“The usual,” His friend seemed a little too concerned for it to be the usual, “you drank too much, made a fool of yourself, retched and passed out.” 

“What do you mean I made a fool of myself?” Babe didn’t like where this was going. Bill looked at him for a moment and sighed.

“Well,” Bill started slowly, “from what I heard from Luz, you were with Gene in Nix’s guest room. Luz musta been listening to you guys cause he says Gene was practically pouring out his undying love…for you.”

Oh shit…Babe knew what happened. He had to talk to Gene.

Bill kept going, “Next thing he sees is you running to the bathroom and Gene running out on the party. I should be asking you what happened really.”

“I messed up big time Bill,” he said. Seeing Bill’s face he explained, “he told me he wanted something more than friendship…and I told him I was going to be sick.”

Bill stared at him for a minute before slapping both of his hands to his face. “You have to talk to him man. Seriously you need to get your shit together, you’re stressing me out with all your problems.”

“I know, I know! I’ll talk to him as soon as…” Babe trailed off as he looked at his shirt where there looked to be what he could only assume was regurgitated Doritos. Yuck. “As soon as I take a shower and change….man I reek.”

“No argument there!” A voice shouted from the living room. Babe glared.

“Fuck off Luz-invite yourself into the conversation instead of eaves dropping! Damn!” That said he rolled out of bed and looked at Bill. “A shower, and then I fix this. Man I’m such an idiot!” 

 

Babe had just finished getting dressed and was going over everything he was going to say to Gene when someone started banging on the door. He ran to get out of his room hoping that maybe it was Gene. All he really succeeded in doing was tripping over his untied shoelaces. 

When he got out of his room Bill had already answered the door and the person behind it wasn’t Gene at all but instead it revealed a ruffled and irritated Lewis Nixon. 

“Geez Nix,” Bill said as he moved to let Nixon inside, “what the hell are you even doing up? It’s only 2 pm.” Nixon just glared at him. 

“Can it Guarnere. Has Dick called you today?” He asked looking hopeful. However when Bill shook his head he didn’t look too surprised. “Of course not. This is just great. Is Babe up? I think I have something to say that he’ll want to hear. “

Babe rushed into view and tossed on his jacket, “I’m right here Nix. What is it?”

Nixon sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “Last night Dick and Lipton left the party early to go check on Eugene. He was upset for some reason.” Although from the look he shot Babe, Nixon knew exactly why. He kept going, “This morning I find a very apologetic message on my phone from Dick, letting me know that Gene has lost his mind.”

They all just kind of stared at him. Nixon rolled his eyes. “Gene’s flight took off this morning. He’s going to find Renee and ask her to marry him.”

“WHAT!?” Babe hollered loud enough to make Nixon wobble backwards on his heels. 

“Oh I think you heard me Casanova. Thanks to your little run and puke number last night, Gene dug up the dough for three tickets to Europe and a fancy ring. You blew it big time.”

“Wait three tickets?” Luz asked obviously not understanding why Nixon was so pissed. 

“Yeah three, Lip and Dick went with him.” Nixon said in his most dry tone, he turned towards Babe looking none too pleased. “Which is why you need to fix this! My boyfriend just flew over the Atlantic to God knows what country when he should be here spending his summer with yours truly!”

Babe didn’t know how much worse this could possibly get. But he knew one thing there was no way in hell he was going to sit back and let Eugene get married, not thinking that Babe didn’t care about him. He wasn’t going to let him make the biggest mistake of his life. 

“Well what am I supposed to do?” He asked looking at his assembled friends-well friends and Nixon-desperately. 

Nixon looked like he couldn’t believe his ears, “What? Are you kidding me? Go after him or something!”

“With what money? I work part time at a deli-what do you think they pay me man!”He shouted. He couldn’t deal with Nixon’s bullshit right now. 

Bill held his hand up, “I’ll chip in man but you’re not going by yourself. We’ll go with you.” He gestured between himself and Luz who nodded quickly. “Your ma would kill me If I let anything happen to you. I’m sure we can get enough for the tickets.”

“Oh Bill you don’t even know where you’re going!” Nixon retorted as he crossed his arms. Bill shot him a glare. Nixon quickly uncrossed his arms.

“Listen Lew either you contribute or shut your mouth okay this ain’t about you.” He snarled at the huffy young man.

“Um well Dick’s involved so it kinda is.” Nixon snapped and then sighed, “I can help. But even I can’t cover all the expenses. Crap, what a fine mess you’ve gotten yourself into Babe.”

Babe couldn’t believe how crappy he felt. They were trying so hard to help him rectify his own stupid mistake. He’d had everything he wanted right there, and he fucked up. All he had to do was nod, he’d been so good at that. Why couldn’t he have just nodded to Gene one more time? He thought he’d felt bad last night. He felt cold now. 

He’d blown his chance at the one thing he’d wanted for so long. Maybe he didn’t deserve Gene. Looking over at the bickering people in front of him he knew he definitely didn’t deserve his friends. 

All of a sudden Luz, whom had been uncharacteristically quiet, spoke up. “Nix you think that if we all chip in that we’ll have enough for anything other than plane fare?”

Nixon looked at him for a moment, “Well there’s no way to know for sure really. We don’t actually know where they are. My guess would be yes though. But we have to consider the fact that we’ll have to travel by more than plane. Why?”

Luz just smirked, “I think I know someone who can get us a ride for free.”

Bill looked at him with disbelief, “Oh you can’t be seriously thinking about who I think you’re thinking about.”

“It’s bulletproof man-he owes me.” Luz seemed to be pretty sure. Unfortunately neither Babe nor Nixon seemed to know who they were talking about. 

“It’s freaking suicidal is what it is. He’s not going to do any favors for you.” Bill said to him obviously more than a little against this plan. Whatever it was. 

“Not for ME, but I think he can be persuaded.” Luz was smiling to himself. That was never a good thing.

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Bill snapped. Babe didn’t have time for this.

“LOOK,” He shouted, interrupting their bickering, “WHOEVER he is, let’s just ask him okay? It can’t hurt any. They already have a head start on us and I HAVE to get to him before he asks her! Okay!? I don’t care who this mystery guy is damn it! I can’t afford to let Gene get away!”  
The three men just looked at him speechless. It was the most he had talked so far. Maybe his quiet spell was finally wearing off. God he hoped so. It certainly hadn’t been doing him any good. 

Nixon nodded looking more pleased than he had in a while. “That’s the right attitude. Let’s go.”

“Yeah let’s go.” Babe echoed. He really hoped he didn’t screw this up. ‘Just go after him-find him-tell him.’ That should be simple enough. He hoped. 

One more thing he was sure of. He was NEVER eating Doritos again. Seriously.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I’m not making any money off of writing this story. It’s entirely fictional and based on the performances given in the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers and not the actual soldiers. I don’t own anything….so please don’t sue me. I wrote it for your enjoyment so…enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

Dick Winters was a patient man if there ever was one. He had to be. If he wasn’t then the people around him would have caused him to become every bit as crazy as they were. Yes…crazy. 

Well what else would you call his borderline alcoholic boyfriend whose mood swings were the stuff of legends? Or his wild group of friends who didn’t think anytime was a good time unless someone passed out? Preferably from doing something illegal. 

Well….he thought they were nuts anyway. Lewis had assured him that this was all perfectly normal behavior for people their age. Dick had come to accept this. His two best friends, thankfully, were more like himself. As far as he was concerned the crazy wasn’t anything to worry about on their end. 

Unfortunately he couldn’t quite think of any other word to describe the situation he was in right now. 

Here he was…up in the air, away from the one he loved and party to something he thought was ludicrous. Mindlessly he looked over at his friend sitting to his right whose arms were crossed as he stared out their airplane’s window. 

“This is crazy isn’t it?” He asked the troubled looking young man.

Carwood Lipton possessed, along with many admirable qualities, the ability to talk about sensitive issues without making anyone look or feel bad. Dick was hoping he could convince his friend to talk to Eugene. Let him know that this wasn’t what he wanted, because Dick had tried and he really couldn’t find the right words to get Gene to reconsider his current course of action. 

“What?” His friend seemed distracted. Or maybe he was just tired. Everything had happened rather quickly. 

After fleeing the party Eugene had made up his mind that he was going to find Renee even if he had to go after her by himself. Dick didn’t want that, so he and Lipton had tagged along despite the fact that they were both against the whole thing. 

Eugene still hadn’t told them what had happened between him and Babe. But Dick was sure that whatever it was it could be fixed. Eugene had to be blind not to see that Babe loved him. To Babe the sun rose and set on Eugene and Eugene himself seemed to be the only one who didn’t understand that. 

Dick had sent Lewis a message from the airport to let him know what was going on. Maybe he could convince Babe to fix this somehow. Or at the very least maybe he could meet up with them somewhere. Dick didn’t particularly enjoy the idea of them spending the summer in different countries.

He let out a small sigh and focused his attention back in on Carwood. “You should talk to him. I’ve already tried but maybe you can say something different-something better.”

Carwood looked rather skeptical, which told Dick something right away. Lipton was the kind of person who would take a chance on anything if he thought it was the right anything. If he didn’t think he could get through to Eugene then he must have a solid reason. 

Carwood started to speak and then paused, possibly to rethink what he was about to say. “Maybe I’m not the best person to talk to him. I don’t have the most stellar track record when it comes to relationships and if we hope to convince him to give up something he thinks he wants…then we should at least have the decency to let him hear it from someone who’s happy.” 

Dick sighed…again. He should have known that this was coming. Carwood hadn’t been the same since last summer when he had a fling that went horribly wrong. 

Dick felt somewhat responsible for Carwood’s current misery because the guy was a good high school friend of his that went to college in a different state and he had been the one who introduced them. Just another shining example of a relationship that could be fixed if both parties just stopped wallowing in self pity and said what needed saying. But what did he know?

“Oh yeah…him…you know I still think you should give him another chance.” He told Carwood who just glared at him and went back to staring out the window. 

Well so much for that plan. He really hoped Lewis was having better luck with Babe.

 

 

 

“So what’s the deal with this guy anyway? How do you know him and why don’t you like him?” Lewis asked as he looked over at Bill. 

The two of them were going to go scrounge up some money to convert to traveler’s checks while Babe and Luz saw about getting them a flight and Nixon had to admit he was curious about whoever it was they were talking to.

Bill gripped the steering wheel tighter. “Geez Nix with the fucking questions-look he’s an old high school buddy of Dick’s and he’s nothing but a self serving pain in the ass alright?”

Lewis looked irritated at the information. Bill thought that was a nice change of pace really-Nix looking irritated. “What do you mean he’s a friend of Dick’s? I’ve never met him.”

Bill shrugged as he looked over his shoulder to switch lanes. “Yeah well I can’t help you with that. So you don’t know everyone in Dick’s life-whoop-de-fucking-do. You’ll meet him soon enough I’m sure.”

“Yeah well that’s not the point is it? The point is that you seem to know him and I don’t. I mean what the hell?” Lewis growled. 

Bill just stared at him out of the corner of his eye and gave him a little smirk. “Y’know Nix-irritability and possessiveness aren’t really attractive qualities. And they seem to be the ones you have the most of.” 

“Dick doesn’t seem to care so why should I?” Nixon spat as he hopped out of the car the moment they were stationary.

Bill shook his head and followed the huffy man into their first stop-Nixon’s bank. “Yeah well Dick’s a saint.”

Boy wasn’t that the fucking truth. Bill guessed he kinda had to be. 

 

 

Babe was curious. Curious about a few things to say the least. But mostly he was just nervous. What if this guy wouldn’t or couldn’t help them? Then what would Babe do?

He supposed he could go alone but he didn’t have the money and he had absolutely no freaking idea where to start looking for Eugene. Maybe Dick would be able to call Nixon again once they landed. 

“Hey stop thinking so hard. You’re starting to give ME a headache.” Luz joked as he smoked another cigarette. Babe didn’t really think that smoking while driving was all that smart. Especially not in this piece of shit jeep that Luz seemed strangely fond of. 

It was an old thing-Luz’s jeep. All that Babe really knew was that Luz had won it in a poker game, which was really fucking amazing because Luz sucked at poker, no matter how much he played. And that the passenger door didn’t lock… which was just fantastic. Oh and his seatbelt had to be tied around the armrest since the buckle was broken. Basically his chances of survival were not good in this seat. He should seriously sit in the back next time. 

“Whatever. Geez…just how far away does this guy live? Are we almost there? ” They had been driving for what felt like forever. It had taken them an hour just to get out of the city and that had been two hours ago. 

They had been sucking down Virginia countryside ever since and Babe had seen so many cows that he was seeing spots everywhere he looked now. 

“We’re not visiting him at home. We’re gonna drop in on him at work. It’ll explain a lot actually. Trust me.” Ugh he hated it when Luz told them to trust him. 

“Man don’t say that. So why doesn’t Bill like him anyway?” Babe asked as they turned onto a street adjacent to the first actual building Babe had seen in a long time. 

Pulling into the building’s parking lot Luz cut the engine. “Nothing important really. Bill just thinks he’s an asshole. He got Lipton into some trouble last summer and you know how Bill can be about stuff like that. It’s probably the reason you never met him. Bill must think he’s a bad influence.”

Babe shook his head. “I’d hate to see who Bill thinks a bad influence is. Seeing as how I hang out with you knuckleheads all the time.”

Luz gave him an affronted look as he stomped out his cigarette. “Ouch man.”

Babe took the opportunity to survey the area. The building they were standing next to wasn’t the only one close by. It just looked to be the only one you needed to go into. 

There was concrete stretched out for what Babe could only assume was miles. It had to be some kind of private flight service. The large buildings in the distance were probably where they kept the planes. 

Luz jerked his head to the side and Babe followed him into the building. It was rather plain and empty but Luz seemed to spot someone that could help them. 

“Heya Tom!” he called out to his right and took off toward a counter where an older man was getting off of the phone. 

The man had a face that was sturdy, nose perfectly straight and his graying hair was cut close to his head. He didn’t look too happy at first until he saw Luz. 

“Well I didn’t think I’d be seeing you back here after last time. Hope my son doesn’t owe you anymore money.” The man’s voice sounded casual but it was pretty clear that that had better not be the case, for his son’s sake anyways. 

“Oh nah, the jeep was fine.” Luz muttered leaning over the counter. Interesting…well now Babe knew who he could thank for that death contraption. “Where’d he get that jeep anyways?”

Tom just gave him an exasperated look and Luz waved his hand around in the air. “Forget I asked. So um…where is he anyhow?”

“He’s over prepping the jet for tomorrow, the one in section C if you’re wondering. Need a ride?” Tom asked as he held up a set of keys.

The man seemed to like Luz which made Babe smile because most parents seemed to like Luz. He didn’t understand it really. 

“Oh cool, do you have those little golf cart thingies?” Babe asked before he could stop himself. Luz glared at him.

Tom just laughed, “Sure do son and you can get it any color you want. So long as it’s white.”

Luz looked over at him, “We’ll take one in…I’m thinking white. What do you think Babe?”

Babe nodded, “White sounds good.”

 

 

 

Section C was crawling with people when they got over and it made sense now why the main building was so empty. 

They walked in and looked at the chaos that seemed to be happening near the actual jet. Babe watched as employees went over the plane- cleaning it and checking it out. 

Luz walked over to a man holding a clip board and jerked his thumb towards the jet. “Hey is Ron in there?”

The man nodded. “He’s going over the controls. Tom told me you were headed over, so you can go on up.”

Luz thanked him and walked over to the jet and clambered up inside. Turning around he gave Babe a hand up. 

“Swanky.” Babe commented on the tan leather interior of the ridiculously roomy aircraft. Luz was already headed towards the front. 

Looking over Luz’s shoulder Babe saw the young man in the cockpit. 

He was sitting up so straight it actually looked painful and his thin arms were stretched out while long fingers fiddled over the many knobs and buttons displayed in front of him. 

Luz cleared his throat and the hands stopped. The young man’s head turned over his shoulder and his body followed its lead to turn and face them.

Well…he didn’t look much like Tom really. 

As he stood up the younger man showed a lean, but somewhat thin, body. Babe could relate. His hair was a dark brown and it was tousled in a much more carefree manner than his father’s clean cut. His features were much softer and his eyes much darker and larger. Yet the posture was the same and when he spoke it was in the same curt tone. 

“George Luz. No one told me you were here.” He spoke to Luz as the two shook hands, but his cool gaze strayed over towards Babe. “Who’s this?”

“Ah, Ron this Edward Heffron, we just call him Babe. Babe this is Ronald Speirs. ” 

Speirs reached out and shook his hand, eyes looking Babe up and down as if he’d seen him before. 

“Call me Ron.” He muttered and when he stopped the hand shake Babe had to rub his hand on his leg to get the feeling back into it.

Ron gave him one last look before snapping his head over to Luz. “So what can I do for you George?”

Luz shot Babe a look-he really hated it when people called him George. Yet he said nothing of it as he slumped down into the co-pilot’s seat. Ron followed his lead, sat down and went back to checking the controls.

“Here’s the thing, I kinda need a favor. You see Babe here really needs to get to Europe soon and I was thinking maybe you could give us a lift huh?”

“Define us.” Ron requested as he kept his eyes on his work.

Luz groaned. “Well there’s Babe and me plus Bill Guarnere and Lewis Nixon.”

Ron looked up slightly, “Wild Bill huh? Bet he’s thrilled about this. Nixon’s a bit of a surprise though. Didn’t really think Dick wanted us to get too acquainted. He seems to think we’d get into too much trouble.”

Luz scratched the back o his head uncomfortably, “Yeah well Dick doesn’t know about this. He’s kinda in Europe along with the rest of our problems.”

Ron must have thought that was interesting because his movements stopped and he looked up.

“So let me see if I understand. You want me to sneak four of you onto a jet plane to get you somewhere where Dick, who doesn’t know what you’re up to, is? That doesn’t seem like something I want to do. Dick’s not exactly pleased with me recently, I hear his boyfriend is a bitchy drunk and Guarnere would just as soon shoot me as accept a favor from me.”

Luz shook his head, “Look Dick is trying to help us out with this one from what I can tell. Babe needs to stop Eugene Roe, you know him, from doing something real stupid. Bill won’t be a problem okay? He just wants to help Babe out. Nixon…well whatever man I can’t help you with that one.”

“Doc’s doing something stupid huh? That seems a little out of character for him.” Suddenly something seemed to dawn on Speirs because he turned his gaze back towards Babe.

“Wait-you’re Heffron right?” He asked while Babe nodded. “Now I know where I’ve seen you before. Roe’s got a picture of you tucked away in his wallet.”

“He does?” is the first thing Babe asks, then, “Wait what were you doing with his wallet?”

Ron nodded then smiled at him, “Sticky fingers.”

Babe just looked at him. Trouble….right. 

Speirs made one last tweak of a knob before he stood up and walked past them, motioning at them to follow. Climbing out of the jet he spoke a few words to the man Luz had talked to earlier and waited for them to catch up with him. 

“If I were to help you, I’d first have to get you on the jet. Which I can’t do under my father’s nose because he would notice you and I’m pretty sure the passengers would too. The only way to successfully do this is for me to be the one flying. Now I’m certified to fly with my father’s charter company, however the only jet going to Europe is the one right behind you and it’s leaving in the morning. Truth is that there is no way in hell I’m flying that one due to the status of the passengers. In order to help you guys out I’m going have to break a few laws and put a fair amount of lives at risk. If you want me to help you you’re going to need to give me a good reason.”

Luz rolled his eyes into the back of his head and started listing, “Well for starters I got you out of jail last summer and I’m the only reason you didn’t get sued last spring break by that poor gentleman whose leg you broke with that golf club. Although to be fair, I was totally with you on that one. That guy was asking for it. Plus I like to think that pissing off your father is always a good incentive.”

Speirs stared at him and shook his head, “Not good enough.”

Luz sighed, “Lipton’s with them.”

Speirs smiled after a moment, “Why didn’t you just say that in the first place?”

Babe was confused.

 

 

 

At 4:30 the following morning a few hours before they needed to leave, Nixon showed up with his things to let them know he’d gotten another message from Dick. 

“He had to call from a payphone. His phone’s dead and there isn’t exactly anyway for him to charge it back up. Their plane just landed in Paris. They’re going to crash somewhere and then go find Renee probably tomorrow. Her family apparently live in the west part of Paris so, thankfully, Dick says they’re no longer in too much of a hurry. However he thinks Gene knows what he’s up to so I wouldn’t expect too much help from him from here on out.”

Babe nodded, “Well at least they’re waiting till tomorrow. We’ve got time to catch up with them I suppose. Hopefully we’ll have enough time. You guys ready to head out?”

He looked over at his friends. They had all decided to fit as much as they could into one backpack for each of them since they didn’t really know how long they’d be there. The less that they took the less they had to worry about.

Nixon looked over at Bill, “Got the money?”

Bill nodded. They had managed to get about a thousand dollars between all of them and it was decided that Bill should hold onto it. Seeing as Babe couldn’t be trusted to not lose it, Luz to not gamble it away, or Nixon to not spend it on booze. 

“You really not going to take any liquor huh Nix?” Luz asked like he couldn’t believe it.

Nix just shrugged, and pulled an old silver flask from his bag. “I’ve got this….which is almost empty. I can always check the jet to see if there’s a mini bar.”

Babe laughed as they all piled into Bill’s truck. “Yeah but what about when we get to Europe?”

“I have every confidence in my scrounging abilities.”

 

 

 

When they got to the airstrip it was mostly empty. Babe was under the impression that it took more than three people to get a jet off the ground. Maybe not.

Speirs was waiting in front of the jet, looking every bit a pilot. He nodded to them as they approached. 

“Let’s go put your shit in cargo,” was all he said before turning on his heel and walking to a compartment area where a man took their backpacks. Reaching up to unclip something hanging on the golf cart nearby Speirs unzipped a black clothing bag to reveal another pilot’s uniform.

He turned to Bill and handed him the hanger, “Put this on.”

“What? Why me?” Bill demanded.

“You look the oldest. They’re expecting me to have a co-pilot.”

“There is no way I’m impersonating a pilot!”

“You will if you want that jet to take off.”

The two of them stared at one another heatedly for a few moments more before Bill gave in. 

“Son of a bitch.” He muttered as he jerked the uniform off the hanger. Looking around he realized he was going to have to change where he was. 

Nixon whistled as he looked up at the jet and then shook Ron’s hand, “Lewis Nixon. Who’re you flying in this thing anyway?”

“Ron Speirs. As for your question- a Virginia congressmen and his family. I’m sure they’ll be less than pleased at your company. They probably won’t fly with us again.”

“Uh don’t you think these guys are going to suspect something’s up and report back to your Dad?” Babe asked, gesturing to the personnel around them as Bill finished getting dressed. “Or do all of your co-pilots change out here?”

“I don’t see why they would need to report anything, they’re the custodial staff. My father pays them shit. So they don’t mind helping out. I convinced my father’s new manager to schedule the flight to leave a few hours early. He hasn’t had this job long enough to realize that just because I’m the boss’s son doesn’t mean my word is any good. My guess is he isn’t going to be working here much longer anyway. Let’s go.”

Huh…Babe decided that he rather liked Ronald Speirs.


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer:** _I’m not making any money off of writing this story. It’s entirely fictional and based on the performances given in the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers and not the actual soldiers. I don’t own anything….so please don’t sue me. I wrote it for your enjoyment so…enjoy!_  
  
  
  
  
  
 _“How did I even get roped into this?”  
  
Eugene Roe just smiled softly, “Well from what I can tell- YOU are the only one without a hangover. So naturally they’re just punishing you for your inability to have fun.”  
  
Babe laughed, “I’m sure that’s what they’ll say if they ever wake up.”  
  
Looking around at the trashed apartment Babe would have thought they were living in a war zone. Gene stepped over a passed out Luz and into the kitchen.  
  
“Someone stapled a slice of pizza to your ceiling.”   
  
Babe rushed over to him, being extra sure to step on top of Luz. “Man-are you serious?”  
  
He stopped next to Gene who just nodded and pulled a chair underneath it. “Fraid so.”  
  
As the shorter man went to pull it down Babe decided to stop him. “Nah Eugene, don’t do that. As a matter of fact you shouldn’t even be cleaning this mess. It was our party-we’ll clean it.”  
  
“Yes but I’m sure I contributed my fair share of the mess so let me help.” That said Gene stepped up and pulled the pizza down and tossed it into the garbage bag clutched in his hand.  
  
Babe just shook his head. “Define ‘fair share’ because I don’t recall you having even one drink.”  
  
Gene hopped down and looked up at Babe with a smirk. His eyes roamed around the room for a moment before his hand shot out past Babe’s shoulder. “Aha!”  
  
Moving around Babe, Gene walked over and pulled a beer bottle up off the ground. “This,” he said while wagging the bottle in Babe’s face, “is one of mine.” He tossed it into the bag.  
  
“Bullshit!” Babe laughed. Two could play at this game. “In that case I think that all these,” he stopped and pointed to a pile of beer cans near the toaster, “are mine.” He reached an arm around and swept them into a garbage bag of his own.  
  
“Please,” Gene scoffed and went over to steal the rest of the empty cans Babe was reaching for, “those were so mine. I’LL clean them up.”  
  
Babe shot him a friendly glare, “The hell you will!”  
  
The two of them went on like that-until most of the trash was gone. Each of them trying to claim more mess than the other and trying to talk each other out of helping. However one bottle that Babe had apparently drunk last night had somehow wound up broken.  
  
“Goddamn it!” he swore clutching his hand.  
  
“What happened?” Gene looked over from where he had been picking at a cold piece of leftover pizza. Seeing Babe’s pained face he dropped his trash bag and rushed over. This time he accidentally kicked Luz in the head.  
  
Babe looked up at his concerned face, “Oh uh-I just cut my hand on this bottle. Serves me right for breaking it last night don’t it Eugene?”  
  
Gene just smirked, “Edward for the last time you can call me Gene if you want.”  
  
“Then for all that is Holy please do NOT call me Edward.” Babe sighed. The two had just met the night before so Gene didn’t know that he preferred being called Babe.  
  
“I thought your name was Edward.” Gene seemed somewhat horrified that he might have gotten Babe’s name wrong. The look on his face was kind of cute.  
  
“Well it is. But no one calls me that. Just call me Babe.” He wondered how weird that nickname must sound to someone who wasn’t used to it. Probably pretty freaking weird. However Gene just smiled.  
  
“Okay…Babe. How bout you lemme look at that hand?” He asked reaching for Babe’s now rapidly bleeding hand.   
  
“Why?” Babe wondered what Gene could do that he couldn’t.  
  
“Just wanna see how bad it is.” Gene assured and softly grabbed Babe’s hand and pulled it toward him. Turning it over, he slowly pulled Babe’s fingers back so he could get a better look. Babe let out a small hiss of pain. Gene stopped and looked at him.  
  
“Sorry,” He apologized to Babe who just shook his head. “Well it’s not too deep but it is bleeding pretty badly. You shouldn’t need stitches but if the blood don’t stop soon-I’d say you might wanna go see about getting some skin glue on there.”  
  
“That the final verdict Doc?” Babe joked at him. He had suddenly remembered someone saying that Gene was a pre-med major.  
  
“I’m nowhere near being a doctor just yet.” Gene assured him. “But we should definitely get that cut bandaged up. Do y’all have a first aid kit anywhere?”  
  
Babe looked around, all too aware that Gene still had his hand. “Somewhere…we don’t...you know-really use it.”  
  
That made Gene laugh, “I find that hard to believe. You guys probably need it more than most.”  
  
Babe tried to act offended, “Now Doc you don’t even know me.”  
  
Gene finally let go of his hand, “Not yet anyway.”  
  
Babe had gotten his hand fixed up right after they discovered that the first aid kit was next to the fire extinguisher behind their TV. He was sure that Gene would make a kickass doctor one day.   
  
Then, after they had finished cleaning up, Gene brought out a little plastic bag where he had apparently been collecting all the bottle caps they found.  
  
“What are we going to do with those?” Babe asked.  
  
“I was thinking we could throw them at our dumb friends until they wake up.”  
  
Babe laughed, “I like it. You know I think I like you too Gene. You’re cool.”  
  
“Well shucks.”_  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
“I’m sorry what exactly did you say your name was young man?”   
  
Babe snapped out of his memories to take in the question. Just like Speirs had predicted, the congressman was more than a little pissed at his sudden set of tag alongs. His wife had been making somewhat hostile attempts at small talk to get over the weirdness of the whole situation. Babe felt like he had totally hijacked their ride.  
  
“He didn’t,” Nixon answered for him, coming out from the back of the jet where Babe could only assume he had been sleeping. He stopped and looked at the obviously infuriated woman. After a moment he held out his flask. “Want a drink?”  
  
It had taken Nixon all of two seconds to find the alcohol. Babe was pretty sure he had some sort of built in radar for it. But for his part, Nixon really wasn’t drinking that much right now. Of course what had Babe really expected? The guy couldn’t possibly drink all the time. Most of the drinking he had done Babe had a feeling he was doing to goad the uptight couple.   
  
“Aren’t you a little young to be drinking?” the woman shot back with a disgusted look.  
  
Nixon just rolled his eyes, “Yeah cause you’d know.”  
  
Babe looked between the two before standing up. “I’m gonna go take a nap…somewhere that isn’t here.”  
  
Nix just nodded without looking at him, “Good idea man. You go do that.”  
  
Yeah…sleep was nice. It was gonna be a seriously long flight to begin with. But now Babe had a feeling it was going to be a LOOONG flight.   
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
“Gene? Are you okay in there?”   
  
Eugene Roe was not okay. He’d been having a seriously fucked week. He’d manage to lose the only two people he’d ever loved in one day. One had gone back to her family and left him behind. The other…he just…didn’t want Eugene. It didn’t make sense because Gene had always felt like…maybe he had.   
  
Gene gave himself a glance in the bathroom mirror. He looked pale and tired. Reaching down he turned the knobs on the sink and let the water fill it up. Then there was more knocking.  
  
“Gene?” This time it wasn’t Dick. Gene reached over and unlocked the door. Lipton peeked in and met Gene’s gaze. “What are you doing in here?”  
  
Gene cut off the faucet and leaned down to dip his face into the water. When he came up for air his head felt a little less crowded.   
  
“I was jus’ thinking I guess.” He looked at his reflection again. The water on his cheeks was already starting to dry and it looked like he had been crying. Only he hadn’t been. “I look like Hell.”  
  
“Well you’ve been having a tough run of it.” Lipton seemed cautious. Like he was afraid that Gene would lock him out again if he said the wrong thing. Gene sighed after he allowed a moment of silence to pass between them.   
  
“Yeah-I’ve…just been wondering…about what went wrong.” Slowly he pulled himself on top of the bathroom counter and put his elbows on his knees. “Did I misread him or…what?”  
  
Lipton stared at him for a second before coming all the way inside and closing the door. Gene had been totally unwilling to talk about Babe-until right now. Lipton sure as hell didn’t want to lose this opportunity to talk about whatever it was that his friend might be thinking.   
  
Although why Gene was opening up to him instead of Dick, Lipton wasn’t sure.  
  
“I don’t think so Gene. I think that maybe Babe just didn’t know what he was doing. The only way to know what happened would require you talking to him.” Lipton looked up to see what Eugene was doing. He had taken up one of his favorite pastimes. Opening and closing the box to Renee’s ring.   
  
After a moment the snapping of the box got to be too much for Lip and he snatched it out of Gene’s hands. Gene just stared at his empty hands. “Maybe I should. Talk to him. It’s just that I’m…”  
  
“You’re just what?” Lipton prodded a little. He was pretty sure he knew what Gene was going to say but it was good for them to talk about it aloud.  
  
“I dunno-afraid of having to watch him throw up again? I think I let myself want Babe without thinking I’d ever really have him. I just-I messed up a great friendship. Hell he’s probably straight anyway right? ” Gene gave Lipton a small, sad smile.   
  
Lipton couldn’t help but give him a smile back. Mostly at the sheer hilarity of what Gene was implying. Lipton wasn’t sure what sexuality Babe claimed, but the boy sure as hell wasn’t straight. Few of their friends were. Except for Bill, Don, and maybe Luz…Lipton wasn’t sure about that one.  
  
Stepping forward he clapped a hand on Gene’s shoulder. “Eugene it’s only natural to be afraid of rejection. But I think your biggest problem is that you don’t know what, or perhaps who, you want. And I don’t think you’ll ever find out if you don’t give him another chance.”  
  
“What about you?”  
  
Lipton paused, he wasn’t sure he liked where this was headed. “What about me?”  
  
“Do you wish you’d given him another chance?”  
  
“Um…”  
  
“I mean- you know how it feels to be disappointed by someone you care about.”  
  
“Who says I care about him?”  
  
“Oh please Lip. Besides….he was seriously fine.”  
  
“Hey now. That just sounds weird coming from you. And aren’t you supposed to be too miserable to call people hot?”  
  
“Oh yeah. Thanks for reminding me….jerk.” Gene looked up again, “You’re still a little possessive I see.” He smiled at the disbelieving look on Lipton’s face. A second later the smile was gone again. “But do you? Wish you’d given him a second chance?”  
  
Lipton sighed; he’d be a liar if he said he hadn’t thought about it, “He was just…too much trouble.”  
  
“Yeah most good dates don’t wind up with the two of you in jail.”  
  
“Thanks man.”  
  
“Anytime Lip.”  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
“Sleeping on the floor sucks.” Luz groaned as he strapped a seatbelt on. They were going to be landing soon, which was actually kinda nerve wracking because he couldn’t understand how people even flew, much less landed, aircrafts when it was so dark out.   
  
“Yeah well, this jet isn’t meant for this many people and sleeping on the floor is just part of the fabulous experience. When you’re jonesing for an Advil later just remember to thank barf boy over here.” Nixon grumbled jerking a thumb at Babe who simply flicked him off. Luz was proud to see that his rude tendencies were rubbing off onto what had once been a much too nice boy.  
  
“Whatever. Shouldn’t we wake them up?” He asked nodding over to the politician and his wife. Both of whom had woken up at least two hours ago to start talking about how much trouble the were all going to be in when they finally touched down and don’t you know I’m a congressman blah blah blah.   
  
Luz had been grateful when they inexplicably dozed off all of a sudden. He had been contemplating making a jump out of the jet.   
  
Nixon stared at the two for a moment. “I suppose you could try. Not that it’d do you any good.”  
  
Babe, who had been slipping back into his ‘I Dream of Gene’ mode, suddenly took an interest in the conversation. “Why’s that?”  
  
“I slipped them some roofies early. We’re just gonna leave them on the jet while we make our exit. They’ll be fine. I’m sure they’re smart enough to figure out how to open a door. And put down the ladder…thingy.” Nixon said nodding to himself, obviously realizing that he didn’t really remember how it was they had gotten into the jet themselves.  
  
Luz opened his mouth. What the hell was he supposed to say to that? Nixon was full of surprises.  
“First of all,” He began, “I don’t feel that it’s necessary to point out how creepy, yet awesome, of an idea that is, or remind you that we’re not really building up good karma. But I do wanna know this. What the HELL do you need roofies for?”  
  
Nixon shrugged. “You know how Dick is. He’s not going to want to leave unless everything gets resolved. I don’t really have time for that shit so I just brought them in case I had to drug him and drag him back home with me.”  
  
Babe’s eyes had gotten increasingly wider the more Nixon talked. “You scare me,” he whispered.  
  
Luz silently agreed. In fact he wasn’t sure how Nixon and Dick ever really got together. On the other hand, you never really knew when Nixon’s particular batch of crazy would come in handy.  
Take for instance the situation at hand.   
  
But then again they already had Speirs ……………..they were so boned.   
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Babe felt surprisingly okay with leaving the congressman and his wife onboard the jet as they walked across the airstrip and towards the airport. However his back was fucking killing him. And to make matters worse-  
  
“Uh is it just me or do those guys look like cops?” Luz pointed over to where two men in uniform were leaning against an official looking vehicle.  
  
“What the-” Bill started to curse but was drowned out by Speirs as he boldly walked up to the two men.   
  
“Hello. Is there something wrong officers?” He asked tamely. Babe shot Bill a confused look as words were exchanged quickly and one of the men peered over Speirs’ shoulder to look at them. He put his hand up and got in the car to leave. The second officer stayed behind.   
  
“Um does anyone have any idea what the fuck is going on?” Bill growled.  
  
Nixon shrugged, “Nothing good.”  
  
Speirs made a motion with his hand to something behind the officer’s head and the man turned to look. Which was a big mistake. Because the moment he took his eyes off Speirs there was an elbow coming down into his upper spine and he was falling face forward. As he started going down Speirs brought a knee up into the guy’s face and he was out on the ground.   
  
“WHAT the FUCK!?” Luz shouted as they all looked down at the unconscious man in shock.  
  
Speirs turned on his heel to face them, “We need to go…NOW!”  
  
“What the hell are you-”  
  
“I said NOW.” He shouted and took off in a sprint towards the airport. The others took off after him. Well except for Babe, who couldn’t take his eyes off the unconscious man lying in the middle of the airway.   
  
Luz jogged back and jerked on his arm, “Trying not to get arrested here Babe. Let’s go.”  
  
After they were amongst the people bustling to and fro in the airport Babe had decided that he’d had enough running. Rushing forward he grabbed the elbow of their troubles.   
  
“I want to know what’s going on! Who were those guys? What did they want? And why the FUCK did you DO that? I am SERIOUSLY too tired for this SHIT!” He screamed.   
  
They all just stared at him for a moment. He swallowed hard as he felt his face get hot. Speirs shrugged his hand off and scanned the area. “I swear I’ll tell you all about it. First we need some things.”  
  
“Like what asshole?” Bill looked ready to murder him. Babe could relate. He was confused, stressed, tired and he needed to get to Gene. Man what he wouldn’t give to see Gene right then.   
  
“Like a car dipshit.” Speirs shot back. As he started to walk he began to strip off his jacket and un-tuck his shirt, “And I suggest you take off anything that makes you look like a pilot. When that officer gets back and finds his buddy, he’s going to be looking for us. Along with some of his friends. Put that in a bag will ya?” He asked tossing his hat and jacket back to them. Babe caught the hat and shoved it into his bag as Nixon fussed with the jacket and Bill hurriedly shoved his own things away.   
  
Speirs seemed to be out of sorts because he was bumping into people left and right and kept looking over his shoulder. “Alright let’s go.”  
  
“Go where?” Luz asked. Speirs turned around and tossed him what looked to be a set of keys and a wallet.   
  
“To find our new car of course.” He looked at a yellow stub in his hand. “It’s on the first floor of the parking garage.”  
  
“What just happened? Where did you get this?” Luz looked from the keys to Speirs and then back at the rest of them as they kept walking behind their pilot.  
  
Babe felt like he was in middle school again. Where he was following his teacher to the principal’s office. While everyone he passed was watching him and wondering what it was he’d done wrong. Man…he was going to get arrested. He fucking knew it.   
  
“It’s called pick pocketing, Luz. Ever heard of it?” Speirs was looking around. Having taken the keys back from Luz he was tentatively clicking the locking mechanism. Finally he heard a beep and took off in what was supposedly the right direction. “That driver’s license should look enough like you.”   
  
“Why do I have to drive?” Luz grumbled as they approached the car. It was a sleek, black SUV type of deal. Babe wanted to crawl in and sleep forever.   
  
“First one that came to mind.” That said Speirs unlocked the car and tossed his bag into the back, everyone stared. “Well the sooner you get in the sooner I tell you why we’re running. “   
  
That got them all moving. They got in, Bill, Nix and Babe in the back. Speirs rode shotgun while Luz tried to adjust to the inner workings of a very foreign car. After a moment he figured it out and pulled out of the lot.  
  
“Alright, now what the fuck?” Nixon asked as he slouched down in the back and leant his head against the window.   
  
“That was the local law enforcement. Someone must have called them in or else we probably would only have had to deal with the airport security. They said that they had reports that my father’s jet had been stolen. Which, while true, is not something we wanna own up to doing. I told them they were mistaken and that I was transporting you guys to some bullshit seminar thing and while #1 went to check it out I realized I was going to have to drop #2 if we wanted to make it out of there. Now they’ll probably be looking for us. Fortunately for us, they don’t really have a lot to go on. We should find a hotel and lay low for a day.”  
  
“Wait. You had a conversation with them. So did they speak English?” Babe asked, just now realizing. Maybe Speirs would come in handy. He hadn’t known that he could speak French.  
  
Speirs shot him a look, “Yes they did. A lot of people tend to speak English quite regularly in Amsterdam.”  
  
“What the FU-”  
  
“Are you kidding me?”  
  
“What kind of politician vacations in Amsterdam?”  
  
Nixon looked over at Luz, “Really? That’s the FIRST thing that comes to your mind? Really?”  
  
Luz shrugged.  
  
“Damn it Speirs. You knew we needed to get to Paris! You’ve been nothing but trouble this entire time. And now we could be getting fucking arrested!” Bill shouted.  
  
Thank God someone else was thinking on the same wavelength. Now they had to get to Paris! And also to Gene. Like….soon Babe hoped.  
  
Speirs seemed to have had it as well because he turned around and jabbed a finger into Bill’s chest.   
  
“What did I say when I agreed to do this? HUH? I said that it was highly ILLEGAL and DANGEROUS. And I’m also pretty sure that I SAID that this plane was going to EUROPE and I DON’T believe that I SPECIFIED! So you’re fucking WELCOME!” He jabbed him one more time in the shoulder.  
  
“Don’t fucking touch me asshole!”  
  
“Watch me you inconsiderate shit! Do you have any idea how much trouble I’ve gone through for the all of you?”  
  
“For us? Please! You just want to see Lipton. Who’s never gonna take you back by the way. And who can fucking BLAME HIM- you no good, PSYCHO criminal?!”  
  
Oh…………..shit.  
  
Speirs lunged into the back seat and clipped him in the jaw. Bill grabbed two fistfuls of his shirt and jerked him backwards causing him to bump into Luz, who nearly ran off the road.  
  
“SHIT! Guys stop it! I can hardly drive as it is!”  
  
“Fuck! Just pull over or something!”  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Luz inhaled from his cigarette as he leant next to Nixon against the car. He looked over at Babe who was pacing and chewing on his thumbnail. He elbowed Nixon who was draped over the hood of the car, sunglasses on, dead to the world.   
  
“What?”  
  
Luz caught his eye and jerked his thumb down towards the ditch they’d pulled up next to. “How long they gonna keep this up?”  
  
Nixon sat up and looked over as Speirs stood and kicked Bill in the stomach, right after which Bill grabbed his foot and pushed him face first into a muddy puddle.  
  
“That,” Nixon paused, “is an excellent question.”  
  
They turned to watch. Luz nudged Nixon again, “$20 on Speirs?”  
  
“No bet.”  
  
  
  
  
  
  
“So are you going to do it?”  
  
Gene looked at himself in the mirror. He looked good. He looked…ready. He could do this. He WANTED to do this. He slipped his hands into his jacket pocket and closed his fingers tightly around the velvet box.   
  
He loved Renee. And he knew she loved him. That was all that mattered. He got that now. He knew what he wanted.  
  
“Yes I am.”  
  
Dick sighed, “I wish you wouldn’t.”  
  
“I’ve made up my mind Dick. I’ve gotta go.” He walked to the door and stopped with his hand on the knob. “This is the right decision.”   
  
And he left.


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer:** _I’m not making any money off of writing this story. It’s entirely fictional and based on the performances given in the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers and not the actual soldiers. I don’t own anything….so please don’t sue me. I wrote it for your enjoyment so…enjoy!_   
  


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  
To say that he was nervous would be a vast understatement. The truth was- Gene hadn’t been this nauseous since the first grade, when he’d thrown up on his teacher during the pledge of allegiance.  
  
In his defense he’d been telling the senile old woman that he’d been feeling ill all morning. Plus…he had only been six.   
  
This was of course an entirely different kind of nauseous feeling.  The kind you get when you just know something bad is going to happen and all you can do is sit around and wait for it. Although that didn’t make any sense. Or did it?   
  
He was afraid…afraid that she would say no.   
  
He didn’t know if he could handle Renee’s rejection on top of Babe’s. He didn’t know what he would do if he was alone, with no one by his side and all the time in the world to think about what and who he didn’t have.  
  
Not for the first time he wondered if he was doing this for the right reasons. Or if he was just being selfish.   
  
The day had been slowly progressing to the point he was at right now. Standing in the middle of a busy sidewalk in Paris and contemplating.   
  
First he had spent two hours showering and getting dressed, 30 minutes checking his hair, 30 minutes picking out the perfect flowers for Renee, and now here he was standing at the bottom of the steps that led up to her parents Parisian apartment. And here he had been, for the past 15 minutes, just thinking.  
  
He had convinced himself at the hotel that he was ready. He had even told Dick he felt it was the right decision.  
  
“You should do something. Soon.” said Dick, who had decided at the last minute that both he and Lipton should accompany him for moral support. He nudged Gene slightly with his elbow while Lipton smiled politely at the bypassers that gave them curious looks.    
  
“This is ridiculous.” Carwood muttered and jogged up the steps to buzz the doorbell. He turned around and smirked at Gene, “There you go.”  
  
Gene gaped at him, how exactly was that helpful or morally supportive in any sense of the phrase!? He rushed up the steps and smacked his friend on the arm. “Lip what the fuck! Oh….bonjour.”   
  
The door had swung open to reveal a middle aged man with brown hair and glasses. He was looking at Lipton curiously and at Gene as if he had seen him before. Gene assumed that he probably had, because he himself instantly recognized the man as Renee’s father.   
  
Gene smiled at the man as he slipped into his incredibly rusty French. “Mon nom est Gène. Je suis un ami de Renee. J'étais espérant moi pourrais la voir.”  
  
The man smiled back at him slightly, as he sized him up, as well as quirking an eyebrow at his French. “Je peux parler anglais.”  
  
“Oh thank God.” Gene sighed and smiled at the man again.   
  
“And you are more than her friend as I recall.”  
  
Gene blushed slightly and nodded. Renee’s father continued to speak. “I am sorry to say that she is not here. She is in Belgium with her Aunt and Uncle.”  
  
Gene couldn’t believe what he was hearing.   
  
“What is it?” Lipton hissed from behind him but Gene just held his hand up to silence his friend. Lipton scooted closer to try and hear what was being said.  
  
“Why? When will she be back?”  
  
Renee’s father paused for a moment. “She missed you too much. She felt she needed to- get away. But I think we both know what she really needs is you. I can get you her address. Just give me a moment.”  
  
“Thank you.” Gene nodded and the man went back into the house for a few minutes and came back out with an envelope.   
  
He handed it to Gene and then said something too quiet for Lipton to hear.  Gene nodded and thanked him. After a few more moments he turned to walk slowly down the steps.   
  
“Um…what just happened?” Dick asked as they hailed a taxi. “What’s going on?” Lipton just shrugged as Gene wrung his hands together.  
  
Gene was silently gazing at the envelope that Renee’s father had given him. “We’re going to Belgium.”  
  
  
  
  
  
“While I DO feel better already, and despite my having sworn off liquor like-yesterday, isn’t this exactly what we promised NOT to do with our money?” Babe asked as he sipped at some more….brown looking…stuff. He was already starting to feel incredibly woozy. “And what am I drinking?”  
  
Nixon waved an arm at him, “Pipe down and keep drinking. We’re brainstorming over here.”  
  
How freaking rude….Babe decided that giving the finger had worked well lately and did it again. “I’m not a child you douche. And another thing! Just who is Speirs on the phone with?”  
  
All those presently seated at the table looked down to the end of the bar where Speirs was talking on a payphone. Bill shrugged, “His parole officer? How the fuck should I know Babe? Damn I hate that guy.”  
  
Nixon nodded slowly and took a drink from his glass before poking the purple skin on Bill’s jaw. “Judging from that shiner, I’d say he hates you back.”  
  
“Yeah I think he may have cracked my rib.”  
  
Babe’s jaw dropped as he looked at him, “Don’t you want to go to a hospital?”  
  
“This is the hospital Babe. Now give me a shot of that green stuff.”  
  
Nixon laughed and handed Bill a shot glass. Looking around he frowned for a moment. “Hey…where is Luz?”   
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
“Alright then. Loser buys the next drinks.”  
  
“That sounds fair. I’ll be sure to order something really expensive.”  
  
“It’s not my business how you spend your money.”  
  
“Cute.”  
  
“Cheeky really.”  
  
“Just shoot already.”  
  
“Meow!”  
  
What he was about to attempt required absolute concentration. Which is why Babe’s timing could not have been worse.  
  
“LUZ!”  
  
“Shit!” The dart slipped from his hand and smacked an older man directly in the shoulder. Luz  
silently mouthed an apology to him as he angrily flung the dart back.   
  
Luz’s new friend just laughed as Babe rushed over to them. Luz glared at the tall blonde beside him.   
  
“We are NOT counting that.”  
  
“Oh don’t worry Luz. I’m sure you can make a comeback.”  
  
“Asshole.”  
  
When Babe finally got there he realized that he wasn’t really surprised that Luz had found a new drinking buddy. After all Luz was a people person. Well really he was more like a people’s person. Sure Luz liked people, but people liked Luz more. If that made any sense. It probably didn’t. Babe should probably drink some water.   
  
Instead he just waved at the handsome man beside Luz. Tall, blonde, blue eyes, red lips, blues eyes. Wait... never mind. One of the more interesting looking people Babe had ever seen.  
Huh…he’d never described someone’s looks as interesting looking before.  But that was the best way he could describe…uh...  
  
“…Who are you?”  
  
The man scratched the top of his nose and looked at Luz who just smirked at him and said, “He’s really drunk it would seem.”  
  
“Yeah…um…the name’s Buck. Buck Compton.” He gave Babe a firm handshake as Luz decided to step in.   
  
“Buck this is Babe. He’s the really pathetic one that I’ve been telling you about.”   
  
Babe made his now favorite hand gesture. Luz just stared.  
  
“Did you just flick me off with your pointer finger?”  
  
“I heard about your problem, kid. Tough break.” The man, Buck, said before he turned his attention back to Luz. “Can he play as well as you?”  
  
“Oh God no. He sucks.”  
  
“That’s too bad. Well Babe why don’t you take a seat and watch your friend and I make some easy money.”  
  
And that’s exactly what they did.   
  
Apparently Buck and Luz had been suckering a bunch of drunken men into betting on games of darts. Buck would play left handed in order to coax them into betting on a game and then he brought out his actual skill for it.   
  
Babe smiled as a couple of tourists reluctantly parted with their money.  “Cool.”  
  
  
  
  
  
Bill tapped his fingers on the table as he thought.   
  
Nixon had been little help as far as figuring out a way to get to Paris was concerned. He’d become more occupied with building some sort of structure out of his many empty shot glasses. And of course his favorite past time, talking about Dick.   
  
“I just don’t know why he did this. I mean…he should know how much I hate being without him. I mean, Gene’s cool and all but- what about MY happiness? He’s probably off in Paris getting felt up by some slimy French scumbag, while I’m sitting here drowning-”   
  
Bill couldn’t take this bullshit for much longer, he was starting to wonder if he and Luz were the only sane people in this group. And when he had to start categorizing Luz as sane, things were not good.   
  
Drowning out Nixon’s one man pity party he took up one of his own fun hobbies, thinking about how much he hated Speirs. He glared at said man as Speirs whispered something to the bartender and propelled himself away from the counter.   
  
When it came down to it, Bill disliked Speirs for one major reason. He had put a friend of his through pain. That was it. Of course the man also seemed to think he was above the laws of society, that he could do anything he wanted whenever he wanted. Plus, he was a fucking jerk off and Bill just despised him. He shouldn’t feel it was necessary to explain his hatred. It just was. To be honest he hadn’t felt that much intense anything towards anyone in awhile. Anyway- screw Ronald Speirs. He was trouble…nothing more.   
  
Now that he was thinking about it, Doc was slowly inching his way onto the Guarnere shit list as well. Babe was Bill’s closest friend and he couldn’t help but be protective. Overly so, if his presence in Europe was to be any indication. And he hadn’t seen Babe this out of sorts ever before. So yeah…Doc wasn’t one of his favorite people either.   
  
However Bill chose to revel in his immense dislike of Speirs as the man took a series of ridiculously smooth strides towards their table. Only when he stopped and cleared his throat did Nixon shut the fuck up and regard him.   
  
“You’ll be glad to know that I found us a ride to France.” He stated simply before tossing something small at Nixon, who watched as it hit his chest and fell to his lap.   
  
“That’s a new battery for your phone. That way you won’t have the same problem Dick had. Hopefully he’ll try and call again soon. I suggest you use it sparingly and don’t ask me where I got it.”  
  
The two seated men just stared.   
  
Speirs held their gaze for a moment before looking at the somewhat abandoned table. “Where’d  they go?”  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
 _‘WHY did you have to leave and GO AWAAAY??????? I’ve been used to HAV-ing someone to LEAN on, now I’m ALONE….baby I’m ALONE!’_  
  
Buck looked on in horror as the drunk red head bellowed out “Have You Seen Her” from the top of a bar room table. An intrigued crowd had gathered to watch the young man make a fool of himself.  
  
Buck cast a glance at the brunette he’d somehow managed to spend his whole evening with. “He’s really quite awful.”  
  
Luz just nodded at his assessment, “Plus I think he got some of the words wrong.”  
  
“We should put a stop to this.”  
  
“I agree.”  
  
……………..  
  
“You’re not doing anything.”  
  
“Neither are you.”  
  
“By ‘we’, I meant _you_ …smart ass.”  
  
“I can’t. I’m too enthralled in watching what can only be called a cry for help.”  
  
Buck just laughed. George Luz really was something else. And if Babe was any indication, so were his friends.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
“Is he SINGING?” Nixon asked as he squinted above the crowd at Babe, who was hollering into a beer bottle with his eyes closed.  
  
Bill just stared, “If you call that singing.”  
  
Speirs frowned and shook his head as he started towards the table, Bill right behind him.   
  
Ron just quietly elbowed his way through people, while Bill took a more direct approach.   
  
“EVERYBODY MOVE! Show’s over, get on with your lives ya bunch of enablers.” He growled as they cleared a path to Babe.  
  
All of a sudden Babe took a dive off the table, where, thankfully, Luz and his new friend caught him and steadied him.   
  
“Luz! What the hell is the matter with you? Letting him go on like that?” Bill growled as Speirs gently took Babe’s arm.  
  
“Me? I was letting him vent. There is nothing the matter with me.” Luz defended with a smirk.   
  
Nixon had made his way over to them as he fiddled with his new phone battery. Looking up he gave Buck a critical look. “Don’t I know you from somewhere?” he asked.  
  
Buck just stared at him before shaking his head, “I don’t think so.”  
  
Nixon kept staring as he chewed his fingernail, “Huh.”  
  
“Alright then. No one knows each other. Let’s go.” Speirs ordered trying to maneuver Babe in front of him. However Babe threw out an arm to knock Speirs away.   
  
“Cut it out. I’m having a good time! Although…my stomach’s not feeling so good.” He argued drawing people’s attention back to him once more.   
  
Ron, looking frustrated, grabbed his shoulder, “You’re leaving with us NOW, whether I have to drag you out by your-”  
  
However he was cut off as Babe spun around and spewed vomit down the front of his shirt. Speirs just closed his eyes and tilted his head back as he muttered to himself. Not for the first time, Luz thought he might kill someone.    
  
Babe just coughed and rested his head on Ron’s shoulder. “I feel better now.”  
  
Luz couldn’t help it. He laughed.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
After passing Babe off to a highly amused Bill, Ron stripped off his shirt, to the pleasure of many of the bars occupants, who chose to whistle at him. Speirs just glared at the whole bar in general before flinging his shirt at Luz’s head.   
  
“Yuck! Alright I’m sorry I laughed. Gross.” Luz complained as he tossed the disgusting shirt in the garbage.  
  
Turning to Buck he cracked a smirk, “When guys start taking their clothes off and the people around you start puking it’s definitely been a successful night. Unfortunately it’s also my cue to leave, so thanks for the extra cash! Maybe I’ll see you around?”  
  
Buck smiled brightly back at him, and Luz couldn’t help but think he looked great, “Sure. You can count on it.”  
  
Luz just nodded, confused, as Nixon shoved at him to keep moving all while still giving Buck strange looks.   
  
By the time they had gotten outside, Bill had taken unexpected pity on Speirs and given him his jacket. Speirs looked at him strangely as he slipped it on, “Thank you.”  
  
Bill looked away and coughed into his hand, “Don’t mention it.”  
  
Nixon looked back at the bar, “I swear I know that guy!”  
  
Luz just rolled his eyes as he pulled one of Babe’s arms around his shoulders, “Let it go man.”  
  
“Guys I think I’m gonna barf again.”  
  
…………  
  
“He doesn’t drink again. EVER.”  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Buck watched with a smile as Luz and his friends left the bar. Luz had told him what they were doing in Europe. How they had accidently wound up in Amsterdam. He had to admit, it was a more interesting tale than his own.  He had simply decided to take a solo vacation, just to piss off his family. They had insisted that he transfer from UCLA and to a school in Virginia that they hoped more suitable for a future lawyer.  He was just hoping to blow as much of their money on booze, sex, and cards before the summer was over.   
  
But now there was Luz. Maybe he could put his summer to better use.   
  
As he went to exit the bar his cell phone suddenly rang. Cursing the person’s, whomever it was, timing, he answered.   
  
“Hello?” Buck spoke quickly as he looked to the exit.  However the unexpected voice on the other line got his attention. “Hey! Man you haven’t called me in a while now.”  
  
Smiling he looked down at his watch, “What time is it over there? 5 pm? Shouldn’t you be rescuing a little girl from a well or something?...What do you mean you’re in Europe? Look me up man! I told you I was vacationing here…huh. Paris? Well I’m in Amsterdam right now. What the hell are you doing in Paris?”   
  
Buck listened to his ex-boyfriend tell him just why he’d unexpectedly gone to Paris. Buck couldn’t believe his ears. “Really? That sounds kind of familiar. Do you by chance have a friend named George Luz?”  
  
  
  
  
  
  
The hotel was, if Bill was being frank, a shit hole. It was a truck stop motel that he was pretty certain doubled as a whore house.   
  
But it would have to do. He grimaced as he steered Babe to one of the twin beds and let him fall on top of it with a thud. Luz clapped his hands together, “So who wants to bunk with the never ending barf machine?”  
  
“I’ll take the couch,” Nixon announced as he jerked a thumb at the beat up piece of furniture in the corner. Luz looked at Speirs.  
  
Ron just growled at him, “He threw UP on me already. As a matter of fact, I’m going to go shower. And you all better get some sleep because I’m waking your asses up early tomorrow.”  
That said he tossed Bill his jacket and went into the bathroom.   
  
Luz looked between the two beds, “Dibs on Babe. Lesser of two evils.” That decided he threw his bag down next to the nightstand.   
  
“Bullshit you can’t make me share a bed with that maniac. He probably breaks people’s arms in his sleep or something!” Bill protested.  
  
Luz just shook his head, “Dude, I already called dibs. You’re just going to have to learn to like it.”  
  
“Luz you chickenshi-”  
  
However he was cut off by a loud banging on the door. “Open this door! This is the police. We have cause to search this room!”  
  
“Oh…shit.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

  
  
  
  
 **A/N:** Also Babe puking on Speirs is totally inspired by a scene in the movie _Memphis Belle_. Which is an awesome (and slashy) WWII movie that should be seen if you haven’t seen it yet!


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: _I’m not making any money off of writing this story. It’s entirely fictional and based on the performances given in the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers and not the actual soldiers. I don’t own anything….so please don’t sue me. I wrote it for your enjoyment so…enjoy!_

 

 

 

 

  
  
  
  
“I was kinda getting used to the idea of Paris.”   
  
Dick wasn’t sure that he thought going to Belgium was a smart move. Although he could certainly understand how Eugene might think otherwise.   
  
Now that he had spoken to Renee’s father, Gene was feeling more righteous in his plans than ever before. Personally, Dick took Renee’s absence as a sign.  
  
A sign that the two of them just weren’t meant to be. That God was trying to steer Gene away from Renee, and trying to give Babe and the others more time.   
  
He knew he needed to get in touch with Lew and let him know their change in course, but he wasn’t yet sure how to pull it off right under Gene’s nose.   
  
Presently, Gene was busy making phones calls to find them a way into Belgium, so Dick felt it was safe to wave Lipton over.  He glanced at Gene once more before whispering to his blonde friend.   
  
He had a couple ideas. But he was going to need Carwood’s help.   
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
“What should we do?”  
  
“Um…open the door?”  
  
“Dude they’re cops!”  
  
“Well if you ain’t gonna open the door than they’re just gonna bust it down!”  
  
“Right….”  
  
The door swung back to reveal three very peeved and also very young policemen.   
  
“Can we help you officers?”  
  
Nixon’s first instinct was to ask who had called in the puberty police, but figured maybe he should keep his mouth shut for once. The cops immediately walked in and surveyed the room.  
  
“We’re looking for a young man who assaulted a police officer early this morning. We received an anonymous call that he may be here….” The officer trailed off to give Babe a strange look as he groaned and rolled drunkenly off of the bed.  
  
Nixon considered that maybe he should stop pushing alcohol onto the kid. After all, having Babe hung over wasn’t really going to help him win Gene over. Plus he was so skinny that two sips in and he was already gone.  
  
“…but none of you really resemble the sketch we were given.”   
  
Lewis knew it wasn’t necessary to point out that the man who had probably described Speirs wouldn’t even know what his own mother looked like after getting whacked that hard.   
  
Nixon then felt the urge to throw himself in front of one of the officers as soon as they turned towards the bathroom door.  
  
“Is there someone in the shower?”  
  
“No.”  
  
“No!”  
  
“Yes.”  
  
Nixon and Bill just glared at Luz, who looked too shocked at what he’d said to do anything about it.  
  
“Is there some kind of confusion?” A second officer asked from the doorway.  
  
“No!” Nixon and Bill both forced out quickly. They looked over at Luz.  
  
“Yes.”  
  
Fucking damn it!  
  
Nixon sucked in a deep breath as the first officer went to grab the handle of the bathroom door.  
  
“Officers wait!” A new voice jumped in from outside the door. The policeman dropped his hand and turned his head.   
  
They all looked over and gaped as a familiar looking blonde came into view, “I’m sorry. I was the one who called it in. I wasn’t sure then but I’m pretty sure now…that um, the guy’s actually in room 112.”  
  
Buck pursed his lips and looked at the assembled law enforcement before pointing to the ground, “Downstairs.”  
  
The officers shared a guarded look before turning back to them, “We’re going to go check this out. Don’t go anywhere.”  
  
“Of course.”  
  
“Wouldn’t dream of it.”  
  
“Staying put sir.”  
  
“This carpet smells GROSS!”  
  
When the men left, Nixon blew out a harsh stream of air that he wasn’t aware he’d been holding in. They waited a couple of moments. Nixon thanked God that they had been lucky enough to get a bunch of 12 year old cops who didn’t think to leave someone there with them.   
  
“So…let’s get the fuck outta here?”  
  
“Oh yeah.”  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
In the rush to get all their shit together, none of them really knew what to make of Buck’s presence.   
  
Nixon glared at the man as he grabbed his pack, “As soon as we’re out of the woods, you’re gonna fucking explain yourself.”  
  
Luz looked at him curiously as he helped Babe sit up. “Someone needs to get Speirs.”  
  
Bill rolled his eyes and turned to rush into the bathroom to get the prick to hurry up.   
  
However he came out much quicker than he’d gone in, face red. “He’s still in the shower.”  
  
Nixon groaned, “No duh,” rushing over he banged on the door. “We need to go! NOW!”  
  
A couple seconds later a shoeless, shirtless and still dripping Speirs busted out of the bathroom, buttoning his jeans and rushing to get his things together.  
  
“What happened?” he asked as he tossed his things into his bag and shoved his shoes on.  
  
“No time.” Luz added, still struggling with a very out of it Babe. A VERY out of it Babe.   
  
As Ron crouched down to get a shirt, Bill noticed a tear of water roll down his spine, but he was very much NOT staring at it………..he WASN’T.  
  
Speirs pulled on a white tee and then went to grab Babe away from Luz. Bill, still not entrusting Babe’s care to just anyone, went with him.   
  
Speirs stopped and looked at Buck, “When did you get here?”  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Luz peeked out of their motel room and into the night. He didn’t SEE any cops. That would have to do.   
  
“Coast looks clear.”  
  
Trying to be discrete was not really their strong point. Especially not with a drunken teenager and Ronald Speirs, who was pissed off about not being in the loop.   
  
Speirs and Bill were practically dragging Babe down a set of stairs when Ron pointed at Buck and said, “Who the hell are you and what the hell are you doing following us? Cause I highly doubt that this is a happy little coincidence.”  
  
Luz wasn’t sure what was with the hostility all of a sudden, had they forgotten that he had just saved their asses from the police?  
  
Buck looked (wisely) terrified of Speirs and started to fold, “Well I wasn’t…following you. I mean I was following Luz-but then I got a call,”  
  
Wait what?  
  
“You were following me?”  
  
Buck looked at him for a minute, “I didn’t mean to say that. I wasn’t like, going to mug you or anything I swear.”  
  
Luz shook his head, “No I know. I mean-”  
  
“Nobody gives a crap!” Nixon snapped, “So you got a call saying what?”  
  
Buck looked away from Luz; he seemed to have forgotten what they were talking about. “Oh right, well my ex calls me up and tells me he’s in Paris.  I’m thinking he just wants to hook up or something but apparently his friend has lost his mind and traveled all the way to Paris to ask this girl to marry him and he wants my help getting in touch with his friends who are trying to find them. Turns out I already have. I asked if he knew Luz and he said yeah. He wanted me to get in touch with some guy named Nixon and tell them that they weren’t going to be in Paris.”  
  
Holy crap! Luz was busy trying to comprehend all the insane ways that God had worked recently as he listened to Buck. Obviously the most important question to ask now was where they were going to be if not Paris.  
  
Or at least that’s what HE thought. Apparently Speirs and Nixon thought otherwise because they immediately stopped walking, which was fine since they were practically at the car. However  
Bill smacked into the side of the door when Speirs jerked to a stop and both of the crazies looked poised to rip Buck’s head off.  
  
Speirs spoke first, “Who’d you say your ex was?”   
  
The hand that wasn’t holding up Babe had been balled into a fist and although he looked calm as always, Luz saw his knuckles turn white and knew that some bad shit was coming Buck’s way if the name out of his mouth was Lipton’s.   
  
Although to be fair, Nixon looked just as scary. He was chewing on his bottom lip and cracking his knuckles repeatedly, his eyes already burning a hole through the blonde’s skull. It was a lose-lose situation really.   
  
Luz slowly inched himself in front of Buck, who looked back and forth at the two, “I didn’t and don’t think I want to say.”  
  
Smart man.  
  
Nixon and Speirs definitely looked like they wanted to beat it out of him but thankfully Bill interrupted.  “Would you two nut jobs get over it for now? In case you don’t remember we got these guys looking for us and these guys are called COPS!”    
  
Speirs nodded and unlocked the car, Bill situating Babe into the back.   
  
Nixon tore his eyes off Buck finally, “Well where the hell should we go? The clerk’s probably the one who ratted on us and if this shithole can’t keep it to themselves I doubt anyone else will.”  
  
They all got quiet. Nixon had a point. Where could they stay where they wouldn’t have to talk to anyone?  
  
“You can stay at my suite. It’s way too big for me anyway, and you wouldn’t have to check in.” Buck offered from where he was hiding behind Luz.  
  
Luz just beamed. Buck just kept getting cooler and cooler. Even though it looked like Speirs and Nix had decided they were going to kill him, he was still trying to help.  
  
Speirs stared at him for a second then nodded, “Fine-lead the way. Luz, Nixon, get in the car.”  
  
“Actually,” Buck put a finger up to stop them, “Luz I was wondering if you wanted to ride with me?”  
  
Luz looked up, “Huh?”   
  
Buck smiled, “Hold on.”   
  
He rushed off and a second later Nixon and Speirs rounded in on Luz.  
  
“No way in Hell are you-”  
  
“That guy was stalking you!”  
  
“-going with him. He’s obviously a creep-“  
  
“He’s probably going to drug you and drive off and-”  
  
“Holy crap that’s the coolest thing I’ve ever seen!” Luz interrupted them.  
  
Buck was back and so was his ride. Buck was explaining that it was some expensive Italian make, but that it was much safer than it looked as he gave them the address to his hotel and his suite number.   
  
All Luz saw was a kick ass black motorcycle that he was totally getting on.   
  
“Fuck you guys, you ain’t my parents!” He hollered over his shoulder to Nixon and Speirs as he straddled the bike and smiled at a pleasantly surprised Buck.   
  
Buck grinned back at him although he was still talking to Speirs, “There’s no way you’ll be able to follow me if I’m driving this. I guess we’ll be waiting there for you guys.” He ignored the murdering looks he was getting as he walked over to Luz and got on the motorcycle.  
  
“How fast does this go?”Luz asked.  
  
“Really, really fast.”  
  
That said Buck pulled Luz’s arms around his waist and started the bike, “Hold on.”  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
After they had gotten into the car they just sat in silence for a little while.   
  
A very angry silence.  
  
Speirs started the car.  
  
Bill smirked.  
  
“You guys are pathetic.”  
  
“Shut your fucking guinea trap Gonorrhea!”   
  
…..Umm…wtf?  
  
  
  
  
  
By the time Luz was in the elevator he was grinning like a maniac and he was pretty sure his hair was going to be permanently flung to the right side of his head.   
  
“That was AWE-some.”  
  
Buck laughed, “I thought you’d like it.”  
  
“This is a swanky elevator.”  
  
“Yes it is.”  
  
“What floor are we going to?”  
  
“The top one.”  
  
“Sweet! Do you have a mini bar?”  
  
“I have a real bar.”  
  
“That might help you if you need to bribe Nixon.”  
  
“Which one was Nixon?”  
  
“The crazy one with dark hair.”  
  
“You’re going to have to be a little more specific.”  
  
“Excellent point.”  
  
  
  
  
By the time they got to the top floor, which it turned out was the 12th, Luz was just dying to know.  
  
“So is it the blonde or the red head?” He asked as Buck unlocked a very large, white door.  
  
“Well I don’t know who the blonde is so…”  
  
Luz just silently stared at him as they walked into the suite. He wasn’t rendered speechless by the size of the suite, the balcony, the French glass doors leading out to it, the chandelier or the vaulted ceilings. None of those things impressed him. But how in the…  
  
“You and Dick?”  
  
Buck gave him an uncertain look, “Yeah. Why? Is that so hard to believe?”  
  
“But when? How? What happened?”  
  
Buck smiled at him and went over to the bar, pulling out two glasses and a bottle of Scotch.  
Pulling his shoes and socks off he flopped down onto the floor behind the bar counter and motioned for Luz to sit.  
  
Luz thought it was a strange sight. Then he sat.   
  
Buck began to pour and talk at the same time. “It was a few years ago. It should’ve been a summer thing y’know? I was visiting relatives in Pennsylvania and we just hit off. We tried the long distance thing but then he met some guy at college and we knew we wouldn’t make it. So we kept in touch. Hung out if we were in the same area. Y’know-we’re pals. That kind of thing. Did he never mention me?”  
  
Luz looked at his glass, noticing that Buck didn’t seem terribly hurt by that idea, “I’m sure he did, but he never gave any details or anything. I just…”  
  
Buck took a deep drink and leaned back against what looked like a dishwasher. Luz couldn’t help but find it funny that they were in this big ass room and had chosen to sit on what was basically the kitchen floor.  
  
“Why is this bugging you so much?”  
  
“It’s not!” he protested. Except that it was. Not because of Buck but because of Dick.   
Buck raised his eyebrows as if asking him to speak.  
  
Luz sighed, “It’s just not like Dick to keep secrets like that. That’s like a big thing.”  
  
“Maybe he keeps lots of secrets.” Buck suggested.  
  
Luz hoped that wasn’t true. For all of their sakes. Dick was like…the person that connected them all. Even in a different country Dick was connecting them to new people. But he mainly hoped that wasn’t true for Nixon’s sake.   
  
Dick had never told Lewis who Speirs was. They all just assumed that was because Dick wanted to keep Nixon out of trouble. But what about Buck? Why would he keep that from him? Sure Nixon was possessive but he could handle Dick having an ex right before him. Probably be pleased to know that Dick had chosen him over someone else.  It just didn’t make any sense.  
  
“You guys were serious?”  
  
“Does Dick strike you as the summer fling type?”  
  
Luz shook his head and downed his Scotch.   
  
“Can I get a refill?”  
  
  
  
  
Waking up was becoming a painful experience for Babe Heffron.   
  
His head hurt. He felt super icky. And someone was yelling off in the distance.  
  
Babe sighed, squeezed his eyelids tightly and then slowly blinked his eyes open.  
Well…this was different.  
  
He was alone in a big bed, and the sheets were soft and warm and there were beams of sunlight shining in through a large window.   
  
He couldn’t help but smile when he heard a bird singing, remembering Gene trying to teach him bird calls when they had gone camping over Spring Break. Luz and Bill had been in Florida doing God knew what and it had just been the two of them.   
  
But thinking about Gene reminded him where he was. Well…not entirely because he sure as hell didn’t know where he was. But he knew where he wasn’t. He wasn’t in Virginia.  
  
Sighing he rolled out of bed and noticed that someone (Bill) had put him into different clothes and let himself laugh a little at how much of a pain in the ass THAT probably was for his friend.  
  
Man he was thirsty. He wanted to go look for something to drink. But he was kinda afraid to leave the room. He wasn’t exactly the world’s most confrontational person. And he KNEW he heard shouting.   
  
What was that all about?  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
“WHAT did you just say?”  
  
Buck swallowed, “He uh didn’t tell me that you were his boyfriend. I mean I knew he had a boyfriend for a while but-”  
  
“WE’RE STILL TOGETHER ASSHOLE!” Nixon hollered at Buck who decided that he should just stop talking at this point. And that Dick really owed him for this.  
  
But then he thought about Luz and how long it had been since he’d stayed up all night just drinking and talking and figured that he was getting something out of it anyway. He would just have to man up and deal with Dick’s psycho boyfriend.  
  
“WHERE THE HELL IS THE WHISKY IN THIS PLACE?”  
  
….even if he really didn’t want to.   
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
After Nixon had drunk himself into a somewhat calm state, Babe had ventured out of his room to tell them he was hungry and Buck had suggested they go get breakfast at the hotel café.  
  
To say the atmosphere was tense would be a really lame way to put it. The only person who seemed happy was Speirs, who was probably just glad he didn’t have to compete for Lipton.   
  
Babe wasn’t really happy. But the pancakes he was eating were freaking awesome and he knew for certain that Eugene hadn’t gotten to Renee yet. So he wasn’t too bad.   
  
Bill kept glaring at Speirs, although Babe wasn’t sure WHY and Luz had fallen asleep right after the whole, ‘You guys need to go to Belgium’ thing had been dropped on them.   
  
Nixon was practically comatose and Buck looked kind of terrified that his main ally had just fallen face first into a bowl of cereal.  
  
Babe cleared his throat, “Can someone pass the syrup?”  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Carwood wasn’t sure what he was so scared of. Eugene Roe wasn’t a big guy. What was the worst thing he could do?  
  
Then Lipton started having flashes of himself waking up without a kidney or something and thought that maybe going through Gene’s stuff wasn’t such a great idea.   
  
It wasn’t even his idea, it was Dick’s.  
  
Dick who got to be the distraction while Carwood dug around looking for that damn envelope with Renee’s address in Belgium. Dick who wasn’t going to be the one to wake up in a tub of ice if this didn’t go well.  
  
Dick had made a phone call to his mysterious ex to try and get in touch with the guys, but Lipton knew that he couldn’t tell him to relay much more than the fact that they would be in Belgium instead of Paris.  
  
Which was why Lipton really needed to find that- AHA!  
  
He quickly copied down the address and tried to make it look like he had never been there.   
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Babe had just been contemplating stabbing himself with his fork to break the tension when suddenly Nixon’s phone started vibrating on the table top. Nixon just looked at it.   
  
“Answer it!” Babe urged, “It could be Dick!”  
  
Nixon glared, “I don’t want to talk to Dick right now.”  
  
Babe let out what he was pretty sure was a girly gasp. But seriously. Lewis Nixon NOT wanting to talk to Dick Winters? Was way weird. Haha all those words started with W’s…..  
  
“Somebody answer it!”  
  
Speirs rolled his eyes and picked it up, “Hello?”  
  
Whatever the person said caused Speirs eyes to widen and he tossed the phone to Bill, who glared at him some more.   
  
“What the Hell?”  
  
“It’s Lipton!” Speirs hissed in way of explanation.   
  
“I thought you WANTED to talk to him!”  
  
“I do. Just not until-”  
  
Babe jumped over the table and snatched the phone from Bill. After sitting back down he threw his fork at Speirs, just because Babe would have killed to have Gene on the phone and Speirs was sitting there turning down such an opportunity.   
  
“Hey Lip it’s Babe.”  
  
  
  
  
  
  
So the good news, it seemed, was that Gene, Lipton and Dick hadn’t left yet.  The bad news was, after figuring out where they were headed, that they were all going to be stuck on a train together for a long ass time. And no one seemed very happy about it.   
  
However the worst news, Babe decided, came in the realization that there seemed to be more relationship troubles than just his own that needed to be tended to.   
  
This was turning into such a fun trip.


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer:** _I’m not making any money off of writing this story. It’s entirely fictional and based on the performances given in the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers and not the actual soldiers. I don’t own anything….so please don’t sue me. I wrote it for your enjoyment so…enjoy!_  
  
  
  
  
  
  
While Babe was aware of the fact that he had just eaten three hours ago, he was already starving again. Maybe it was because he’d thrown up so freaking much these past couple days-who really knew?  
  
But when Babe was hungry he didn’t get headaches or become tired, he just did everything and anything he could to take his mind off the fact that he was hungry.   
  
Unfortunately for him, there was hardly room to breathe in here much less do stuff. Who had suggested they take the cheap train? Oh right….he had.   
  
Well it was bad enough that they had wasted so much money already. And he didn’t want Buck to keep paying for everything. If he wanted Luz to like him, well Babe thought he should work that out the old fashioned way. Plus it was either this or drive to Belgium. And Speirs had seemed quite adamant that they ditch the car once and for all.   
  
They had wound up leaving the car in the parking lot of the train station, keys still in the ignition for someone else to….borrow. They were so going to Hell if they kept this shit up.  
  
So he was hungry and he was bored. Plus, he was stuck in a small train compartment. And no one was helping matters to improve with their ever festive moods.   
  
Speirs and Bill were still engaged in the world’s most fierce staring contest. Nixon was silently looking out the window and Buck and Luz were playing thumb war and trying not to let everyone’s foul mood pollute them as well.    
  
However it obviously wasn’t working because Luz just stood up and sighed in what Babe felt was an overly obnoxious manner. “You all blow. I’m going to go find some vacant room to smoke a cigarette.”  
  
Buck stood up to follow after him. “I’m going to go watch him smoke a cigarette.”  
  
A few more minutes of silence passed.   
  
Speirs and Bill stood up at the same time and went to the door leading out of their compartment. They stopped and looked at each other before starting for the door again.   
  
“Move!”  
  
“Make me!”  
  
They just pushed against one another’s shoulders and attempted to squeeze out at the same time.  
Only Speirs was slightly in front of Bill and got shoved out into the hallway.   
  
“Ha!” Bill laughed as Ron pulled himself off the floor in as dignified a manner as Babe supposed he could manage.   
  
Not wanting to hear them bicker anymore he stood up and harshly slid the door leading out to the hallway shut.  Flinging himself back down onto his seat he looked at the last person left.   
  
Nixon had been…disturbingly silent. He hadn’t bitched about anything since they boarded the train half an hour ago.  He hadn’t even looked at anyone and Babe was kinda worried.   
  
He and Nixon weren’t exactly friends or anything. But it was obvious that something was very, very wrong with the older man.   
  
Sure he understood why Lewis might be upset about not knowing who Buck was, but that couldn’t be all-could it? And furthermore why should he care? Nixon wasn’t exactly NICE to him.   
  
But then…it wasn’t in Babe’s nature to let others be miserable. He cleared his throat.  
  
“Are you going to be okay?”  
  
Nixon turned his head just slightly to give him what Babe assumed was a dirty look. He couldn’t really tell since Nixon had his aviators on.   
  
“What do you think?” Nixon hissed.   
  
Babe swallowed. Maybe he really should just leave him alone. But then…maybe he shouldn’t.  
  
“I think you’re upset about something more than Buck. I thought maybe you might want to talk about it?”  
  
“I…”  
  
“Nix you can tell me. I’m not going to throw it in your face or anything.”  
  
Nixon stared at him for a few moments. “It’s just uh…I don’t understand why-”  
  
“Why Dick didn’t tell you about his ex?”  
  
Nixon shook his head, taking his sunglasses off, he drug his hands across his face and Babe noticed the dark circles under his eyes standing out on his already pale skin. He wondered if Nixon had slept at all since yesterday.   
  
“No I mean, I don’t tell him about all my past relationships either. I just don’t get why he’s talking to an ex of his and I don’t know about it. Why he doesn’t even let him know he’s taken or who I am or anything.” Nixon rubbed his temples, obviously distressed.   
  
Now that Babe thought about it, it DID seem like Dick was going behind Nixon’s back by talking to Buck so frequently. And not even telling them about each other? It didn’t feel right.   
  
Nixon sighed and kept talking, “I mean I’ve never even meant his parents. But he came with me to New Jersey to meet mine. I drop hints all the time. It’s not like they don’t know he’s gay. Everyone knows. That’s not the problem. So I guess…I’m the problem. “  
  
Babe didn’t know why he did it. Especially considering the fact that he was pretty scared of Nixon most of the time.   
  
But the man seemed so pitiful. And Babe’s heart went out to him.   
  
He stood up and sitting next to Nixon he wrapped his arms around him in a hug. And Nixon let him.   
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Finding an empty compartment wasn’t too hard. They had picked the oldest, cheapest train and it had a surprisingly small amount of passengers. Not that Luz knew why.   
  
He had just sat down and lit up his cigarette when the door slid open and Buck’s blonde head poked in. “Mind if I join you?”  
  
Luz smirked and waved a hand at the seat in front of him, “By all means.”   
  
Breathing out a stream of smoke he offered the cigarette to Buck, who declined.   
  
“I don’t smoke.”  
  
He explained when Luz looked at him as if surprised. “I use to, but I quit when I started playing college ball.”  
  
Luz smirked and leaned his head back against the seat, “Should’ve known you’d be some kind of jock. What’d you play?”  
  
“Football.”  
  
“What position?” And he tried not to think about alternative answers to THAT question.   
  
“This face? Quarterback, of course.”  
  
“Of course.”   
  
Luz just smoked and noticed that Buck didn’t seem at all bothered by it. As a matter of fact…  
  
“Are you purposely breathing in my second hand smoke?”  
  
“I miss cigarettes.”  
  
“Well then smoke one.”  
  
“I can’t. I’m already addicted to the smell as it is.” He paused and smiled at Luz, “Among other things.”  
  
Luz was definitely catching his drift. Although Buck was anything but subtle. Luz licked his finger and put out his cigarette. Buck looked confused as he stood up and tucked it behind his ear.  
  
“I think we could take care of both your addictions at once.”  
  
“Oh really?”  
  
Luz walked over to a now stunned looking Buck. Sliding his legs over Bucks thighs he straddled him and brought their lips close together.   
  
“Yeah, really.”  
  
Buck immediately cupped the back of Luz’s head and pulled him closer, smashing their lips together. He breathed in deeply, savoring the taste of both the nicotine and the man in his lap.   
  
Luz couldn’t help but think this was better than a cigarette.   
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
After the first five steps Bill just had to accept that fact that both he and Speirs were heading toward the same place. Speirs, apparently, didn’t.  
  
“Are you following me?”  
  
Bill snorted, “You wish.”  
  
“Hardly.”  
  
As Speirs stopped abruptly, Bill assumed that he had discovered where the bathroom was. As he opened the door however, the train began to shake violently, shoving Bill forward and into  
Speirs’ back. They both flew forward; hitting the interior wall of what was definitely NOT a bathroom.  
  
“What the fu-” They barely had time to stand up before the train shook again and caused something to fall against the door, slamming it shut. Speirs jiggled the handle and tried to push it back open without success.   
  
“Great”, Bill griped, “this couldn’t be any worse!”  
  
That’s when the lights went out.   
  
“Damn it!”  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Luz pulled away from Buck as the train began to shake, “What the fuck was that?”  
  
Buck just shook his head and tightened his grip on Luz’s waist as the train shook more violently the second time.   
  
Suddenly the lights flickered out, although that didn’t mean anything to them since they were in a room with a window.  
  
Luz looked down at Buck, “Maybe we should go figure out what the fuck is up. Seeing as we’re like the only people on this thing.”  
  
  
  
  
  
The train was still shaking slightly but it seemed to be skidding to a stop. The screeching was making Nixon’s ears ring.   
  
Babe finally began to release the death grip he’d had on his arm rest.  “We should go find the others.”  
  
He started to get up.   
  
“No! Don’t get up.” Nixon urged, “The last thing you want is to be walking around if this thing starts to shake again. You could get hurt.”  
  
“But Bill,” Babe began to protest.  
  
“Will be fine,” Nixon assured him, surprised at the protective instincts that were flaring up. Babe was a good kid. Plus Guarnere would whoop his ass if he got hurt, but mostly Nixon thought he was a good kid.   
  
Huh...was this what it felt like to give a crap about someone other than Dick?  
  
Felt weird.   
  
  
  
  
  
  
This, Bill decided, was both a teeny-tiny room and one of the worst moments of his life.  He couldn’t see shit.  He tried to shift to the side but only succeeded in stepping on Ron’s foot.  
  
“Jesus Guarnere could you try not to step on me with your block feet?”  
  
“Fuck you.”  
  
“Yeah you’d like to,”  
  
“What the fuck is that suppose to mean?”   
  
“I think you know.”  
  
But before Bill could say anything he felt Speirs' knee brush up against something that it REALLY didn’t need to be brushing up against.   
  
Bill gasped, “Speirs move your knee.”  
  
Ron stopped shifting around, “What-which one?”  
  
Damn that prick didn’t even know what he was doing. But that was a good question. Which knee was it?   
  
Bill slowly put his arms out in front of him till he hit what he figured was Speirs' chest.  
Pulling them back he moved them down and grabbed what he could only assume might be Speirs' thigh.  
  
“Guarnere you’ve got a very small amount of time to take your hand off of my ass.”  
  
“That’s your ass? Well for the record, it’s really bony.”  
  
….Speirs cleared his throat. Bill realized he hadn’t moved his hand.   
  
“Right,” He said jerking his hand back so quickly his elbow hit the wall, hard.  
  
“Oh Bill, I think I figured out which knee you were talking about.”  
  
“Great, then move it.”  
  
“Fine.”  
  
However instead of moving his knee away from Bill’s crotch he slid it up further in between his legs. Bill gasped.  
  
“What the hell do you think you’re-”  
  
“I figured it out.”   
  
Bill closed his eyes tightly, trying not to think about the pressure of Speirs’ knee.  “Figured WHAT out asshole?”  
  
“Why you seem to hate me so much.”  
  
“Everyone else already knows why, so congratulations you’re months behind.” Bill gritted out.  
  
Ron just laughed and Bill wanted nothing more than to knock the shit out of him. “I think that they think they know. But it really has nothing to do with Lipton, does it?”  
  
Suddenly Speirs’ breath was hot at his neck and Bill could only speculate at how close he must have been. “I think you’re pissed because I make you think about things you don’t want to be thinking about.”  
  
Speirs was just whispering into his ear now, “You’ve always prided yourself on being the straight boy in the group of fags and now you realize maybe you aren’t as straight as you thought.  Because of all that hatred you direct at me...”  
  
Speirs trailed off and Bill suddenly felt soft lips ghosting over his ear, “… because of how I make you feel.”  
  
Bill couldn’t think straight much less be straight at that point. He contemplated moving his head slightly towards where he knew the pricks lips would be waiting for him.   
  
But suddenly the train shook once more, Speirs’ lips were gone and Bill heard a loud crack against the wall in front of him. Ron’s body slumped against him and Bill slumped with him out of shock.   
  
“What the hell?” Bill grabbed at Speirs and found his waist, pulling him up he shook him lightly. “What the hell’s the matter with you?”  
  
Bill felt Speirs’ head roll onto his shoulder and he quickly pulled his hand up to try and lift his head up. Then he felt something hot and wet flow over his fingers.   
  
Definitely blood.  
  
Gripping Ron tightly, he began to kick ferociously on the door. “Hey! Someone open this goddamn door!”  
  
Shit this was bad.   
  
  
  
  
  
  
“Whoa! Be careful!” Buck hissed as he caught Luz before he tripped and fell on his face. They only had a couple more carts to go through till they got up near the train conductor. Luz had already fallen once the last time the train shook and Buck hadn’t been able to catch him. The result was the bruise forming on Luz’s right temple.  
  
Buck felt like a parent trailing after a toddler, wary of taking his hands away from Luz’s sides lest he fall again.  Plus anymore bruises in this group and they were going to look like part of some street gang.   
  
Buck glanced at the few people he had passed along the way. They were mostly asleep or didn’t seem too bothered by the fact that the train was now practically stopped out in the middle of nowhere.   
  
Once Buck was sure the train had stopped, he grabbed Luz’s arm to turn him back towards him.   
  
“Let me see your face.” He said grabbing Luz's chin and tilting his head to the side.   
  
“It’s fine.”  
  
“Yeah that’s why it’s blue.”  
  
“We’re here already let’s just see what’s wrong.”  
  
Luz jerked his head away from Buck’s hand and banged on the locked door leading to the conductor's control room.   
  
Buck didn’t understand what was bothering Luz so much. But he didn’t really think now was the best time to bring it up.   
  
He smirked as he watched Luz alternate between violently kicking, punching and screaming at the door.   
  
It was pretty damn cute.  
  
“Get out here you fucking no good piece of shit! We could’ve died you ass-“  
  
Finally the door opened and a scruffy looking man in uniform greeted them.   
  
Luz just glared. “Hi. What the hell’s wrong with the train?”  
  
The man looked at them dazedly before speaking in a language Buck couldn’t understand but thought he might recognize as…what...Dutch?  
  
Luz looked around, “Does anyone know what the Hell he’s saying?”  
  
“Yeah. He’s saying we ran over something.”  
  
Buck looked over to where a man had apparently come to see what was wrong as well.  
  
“Ran over what?” Buck asked.  
  
The man just shrugged, “He doesn’t know. I’m not surprised though. This kind of thing happens often if you take this train. You should’ve taken Eurostar or something.”  
  
Luz jumped in, “Can you ask him how long we’re going to be stopped?”  
  
The man nodded and spoke with the conductor briefly, before turning back to them. “Indefinitely it would seem. They can’t go anywhere until the train is fixed. But he already called the authorities to report the incident and give people a ride into the nearest town. “  
  
“Do you know where we are right now?” Buck asked him.   
  
“Just inside Belgium, still half an hour from Brussels by train. Much longer by car.”  
  
Luz cursed to himself, “Okay thanks.”  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Babe was practically pacing a hole into the floor by the time Luz and Buck found their way back to their compartment.   
  
“Oh thank God you guys are here. What’s going on?” He asked as Nixon perked up to listen to them relay the information.   
  
“Well we might have to hoof it then. We really don’t need to be mingling with law enforcement of any kind.” Nixon muttered. This was not their day it seemed.   
  
“Yeah but we don’t even know how far it is to the nearest town! Much less how long it’d take to walk there.” Luz protested. Nixon knew he was right. But their options were few. Hopefully they could get another ride before the day was done.   
  
“But it could be even longer if we wait for the police to get here. And then we’d have to split up to ride back to town. I say we just walk.” Babe said.   
  
Nixon knew that if that’s what Babe wanted, then that’s what they would do. Babe had finally seemed to discover that he got to call the shots on this trip.  
  
“Well we’ve got a bigger problem,” Buck added, “where are Speirs and Bill?”  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Lipton had tried everything he could think of to delay their trip to Belgium. He even went as far as telling Eugene that he had developed a sudden irrational fear of trains because of something he’d seen on the Travel channel. Gene had just looked at him funny and called for a cab to the train station.   
  
Dick had tried to argue that taking the Eurostar was too expensive, but Gene had just paid for their tickets and they could protest no more.   
  
That had been forty minutes ago. They were already arriving in Brussels, Belgium. A rental car waiting to take them to Bastogne.   
  
  
  
  
  
  
By this point, Bill decided that hollering for help was useless. He had slowly slid what he prayed was only an unconscious Ron to the floor and began trying to break the door down by kicking at it.   
  
Running his hands along the wall in frustration he came across what felt like a tool of some kind, hanging up on the wall across from him. Pulling it down off the wall, he could feel that it was a hammer. It had to have been what Ron had hit his head upon.   
  
Flipping it around Bill began to beat at the door with the sharper end, hoping he could make a hole into the cheap wood and push off whatever was blocking the door.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
“Well did they say where they were going?”  
  
“No! Holy crap, what if something awful happened!” Babe began to rant despite Nixon and Luz’s best efforts to calm him. “What if they got THROWN off the train?”  
  
Nixon raised an eyebrow, “That’s highly unlikely,”  
  
“Or shot!”  
  
“Now you’re being ridiculous.”  
  
“What if they killed each other!”  
  
“That…actually might have happened.”  
  
“Oh my God!”  
  
Luz sighed, “Good job Nix. Look Babe we just have to split up and look through every room. We’ll find them eventually. Where could they have gone?”  
  
  
  
  
  
They didn’t have to go far it seemed to find a door being barricaded by what looked like…a tuba case?  
  
“Whose tuba is this?” Buck asked looking around, “Seriously.”  
  
“WHO CARES?” Babe shouted, kicking the tuba and all the other fallen luggage that had squeezed itself into the hall out of the way.   
  
Suddenly something came straight through the door and would have probably gone straight through Babe’s head if Nixon hadn’t pulled him back.   
  
“Is somebody out there?” Bill’s voice carried to them.  
  
“Yeah! Hold on!” Babe shouted to him as he wrenched the door open.   
  
Once the door was open they saw Bill wielding a hammer and facing towards them. He tossed the hammer to the ground and turned behind him to grab Ron who looked in bad shape, in a heap on the ground.   
  
“Oh my God you killed Speirs!” Luz gasped as Buck helped Bill pull him slowly out of what looked to be a supply closet.   
  
“I didn’t do it! He hit his head on the wall, where a hammer was hanging.”   
  
Bill leaned over Ron as soon as they laid him on the ground. Now that he could see, he saw that Speirs had become very pale and that there was blood pooling into the dip between his neck and collarbone, coming from a large gash on the right side of his head.   
  
Bill’s stomach got very cold as he briefly considered that Speirs might be dead. He was just so pale. Babe seemed to have gotten his wits back and he pressed his fingers to Ron’s neck on instinct, remembering some of the skills Gene had taught him.   
  
“He’s definitely alive. But his breathing’s incredibly shallow, we need to get him to a hospital, like really soon!” He urged them.   
  
“How? We’re in the middle of nowhere! The only people on their way are the police! We don’t know how far it is out of here, or how to call an ambulance.” Nixon began to shout and Bill tried to put together what he had missed.   
  
All of a sudden Nixon’s phone started ringing, startling them all. Angrily he answered it.   
  
“Unless you’re someone who can get us an ambulance then fuck off!” He growled into the phone.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Lipton looked at the pay phone that was cursing at him. He didn’t have time for this. Gene wasn’t going to think he was at the bathroom for much longer.   
  
“Who is this-Nixon?” He asked startled  
  
 _“Yes! Look I don’t have time to talk right now!”_  
  
“Where the hell are you guys? We’re about to leave for Bastogne! And what the hell do you need an ambulance for?”  
  
 _“Our train broke down just inside of Belgium and Ron’s hurt pretty badly. We need to get him to a hospital so I have to go! Just stall okay!”_  
  
“Nixon wait!”  
  
But the line went dead.   
  
Ron was hurt? He couldn’t possibly be referring to who Lipton thought he might be. But who else could it be? Suddenly the implications of Nixon’s words reached him.   
  
Ron was hurt. He needed an ambulance. He needed a _hospital_. He was about to call back-to say what, he didn’t know. But Ron needed an ambulance.   
  
Suddenly someone grabbed his shoulder.  
  
“Carwood, let’s go. As long as they know where we are there’s nothing else we can say. Gene’s getting antsy.” Dick said leading him away from the payphone.   
  
“Dick you don’t understand!”  
  
“Tell me later.”  
  
Lipton was about to start shouting when Gene showed up and Lipton knew he couldn’t do much more without risking Gene taking off by himself.   
  
How was he going to be calm now?  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
While they were all freaking out, Luz remembered the man who had translated for him and Buck earlier. Grabbing the cell from Nixon’s hands he took off towards the conductor’s room.   
  
Halfway there he saw the man and skidded to a stop.   
  
“Can you help me call an ambulance?”  
  
The man sat up quickly. “What has happened?”  
  
Luz thrust the phone at him.  
  
“No time, just do it!”  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Bill had torn off the bottom half of his shirt and was pressing it to the gash on Speirs’ head, hoping that would be enough for now.   
  
But he couldn’t help notice that Ron’s skin was getting colder.   
  
  
  
  
  
Lipton stared out the window of the rental car as Dick drove and tried to listen to Eugene as he excitedly practiced what he was going to say to Renee.   
  
Carwood wanted to tell him how empty his voice sounded, that Renee being his wife wasn’t going to make him happy.   
  
But he was thinking about his call to Nixon. How now he was feeling a little hollow himself.


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer:** _I’m not making any money off of writing this story. It’s entirely fictional and based on the performances given in the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers and not the actual soldiers. I don’t own anything….so please don’t sue me. I wrote it for your enjoyment so…enjoy!_  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Babe was starting to feel incredibly close to having a panic attack. When you were on the road, it always seemed like ambulances were driving like a bat out of Hell. But when you were the one waiting, it felt like an eternity and you could only assume that someone had stopped to take an emergency pee-break.   
  
By the time they actually heard the sirens, Babe was sitting on a seat with his head between his knees.  Nixon was rubbing circles on his back and Luz was saying that everything would be fine.  He certainly hoped so. He briefly wondered if Gene had been there, could he have helped Speirs?   
  
_Breathe in. Breathe out._  
  
As the sirens got closer, Bill put one arm behind Ron’s knees and the other under his neck so he could keep the cloth pressed to the wound on his head.  Scooping him up, he went outside to meet the ambulance.   
  
Babe, feeling immensely better all of a sudden, jumped up to follow him, the others close behind.   
  
Pretty soon the EMT’s were loading Speirs into the ambulance and speaking in Dutch again. While Babe didn’t actually know what they were saying they were gesturing between the all of them and the ambulance.   
  
“Bill you should ride with him,” Babe decided. Bill just looked at him funny.   
  
“Why me?”  
  
“Well who else should it be?”  
  
“You’re my responsibility Babe, I should stay with you.”  
  
Babe started to grow frustrated, “I’m my own responsibility Bill, get in the damn ambulance!”  
Bill didn’t move.   
  
“I’ll keep an eye on him Bill. Just go.” Nixon muttered shoving him slightly toward the ambulance.   
  
“Call us from the hospital to let us know where it is.” Luz added.   
  
“We’ll be walking.” Babe nodded.   
  
Bill looked like he definitely had something to say about THAT but before he could get another word out Buck had practically grabbed his collar and tossed him into the back of the ambulance.  
The EMT’s took the opportunity to slam the door shut and lock it.   
  
As the ambulance drove off, Luz looked at Buck and laughed. “You are SO dead when we get there.”  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Bill fidgeted inside the ambulance. Why the fuck did he have to ride in here?   
  
It wasn’t as though he actually LIKED the jerk-off. Attraction and affection were not the same thing. And he did not LIKE Ronald Speirs. Everyone and their ma knew that.  
  
Except…he did.  
  
But he didn’t!  
  
…. Damn it…   
  
He looked down at the unconscious man, trying not to be disturbed by the breathing mask covering his mouth. Sighing he leaned forward and tentatively placed the back of his hand to the side of Ron’s face.   
  
This didn’t change the fact that he was an asshole.   
  
And he was going to tell him so when he finally woke up.   
  
He’d better wake up.   
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
“Oh my God I’m going to pass out.” Babe groaned. How long had they been walking?  
  
“Damn Babe! We’ve only been walking for like 20 minutes!” Luz exclaimed as he rolled his eyes.   
  
Babe just glared, “This coming from the guy getting a piggy back ride!”  
  
Luz looked down at Buck, who didn’t seem to be having any problems carrying him. “Yeah well I’m special.”  
  
“That you are,” Buck joined in with a laugh.   
  
Babe sighed, “I’m still fucking hungry.”  
  
“So I wonder what they were doing in that closet?” Nixon pondered out loud.   
  
The moment the question was asked, Babe immediately stuck his fingers into his ears and started singing the unofficial ‘I’m Not Listening’ song.   
  
“Maybe we shouldn’t discuss it now…or EVER.” Nixon amended as Babe screwed his eyes shut as well.   
  
A chorus of agreements followed.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
 _Ron downed his whiskey as he looked around the increasingly crowded bar. He figured he would wait a few more minutes before going outside to where Dick and his other friends were no doubt hanging around.  
  
He said this because, just a few moments earlier, the door had opened and he had noticed a crowd gathering on the street outside.   
  
Considering the fact that they weren’t really in any of Mexico’s tourist towns and they were all college aged white males, he figured chances were pretty good that it was them. Plus, few people inspired flocks of admirers the way Dick Winters seemed to.   
  
He was about to leave when a young man came and sat down just a few barstools to his right. He found himself looking over. There weren’t really too many people he could be here with. It had to be one of Dick’s friends.   
  
The young man was clad in jeans and a faded blue shirt that stretched across the muscles between his shoulder blades, his tousled, dirty blond hair fell onto his forehead and he had a face that one instantly liked.   
  
Ron, despite himself, was intrigued by him. Why was he alone?  
  
He watched him out of the corner of his eye for a few minutes. The man ordered something but took one sip and started to cough slightly.   
  
Ron just smiled, “First time drinking tequila?”  
  
A pair of large, brown eyes looked over at him. The man checked over his shoulder to make sure, Ron supposed, that he was the one being spoken to.  
  
“Uh, yes, it is. I guess it’s fairly obvious.” He chuckled. Ron liked his voice… it was unique. The kind of voice that if he heard it just a few more times, he’d recognize it anywhere.   
  
“Are you one of Dick’s friends?” Ron asked.   
  
“Yeah…how did you know?”  
  
Ron held out a hand, “Ron Speirs.”  
  
The man shook his hand firmly and introduced himself, “Nice to finally meet you. Carwood Lipton.”  
  
Ron smiled for the second time that night. Which was abnormal for him. He didn’t need to tell him what a strange name Carwood was. He was sure he already heard that enough. However he was surprised to be meeting him like this.   
  
Dick had nothing but praise for the man sitting near him. And while Dick tried not to highlight people’s bad qualities, it was always obvious when he truly thought highly of someone.   
  
“I’ve been looking forward to meeting you.” Ron said truthfully.   
  
Lipton crossed his arms and looked down before looking back at him for a moment and breaking into a smile.   
  
It was the perfect smile.  
  
The left side of his mouth seemed to draw up to meet his ear and the right corner quirked down softly. He let a chuckle escape and he had that open mouthed kind of smile that Ron thought was so difficult to pull off without looking fake.  
  
Could you fall in love with a smile?_  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Speirs gasped as he jerked into consciousness. The memory fading away quickly and the pleasantness of it being replaced by a harsh throbbing in his head. Everything he felt now was painful and cold.   
  
Blinking his eyes, he tried to clear away the hazy feeling fogging up his mind and take in his surroundings.   
  
His eyes were bombarded by the bright whiteness of the room he was in, and he knew, even as the room spun, that he was in a hospital. He’d been in one enough times to recognize the feeling.  
  
The dizziness…a concussion. Maybe severe. The fact that he was too disorientated to tell actually gave him a clue.    
  
He figured he couldn’t be a priority patient, and that he still had to be in his street clothes. He tried to sit up, at the very least, be he felt sluggish, sick and dizzy all at once and he knew he must be medicated.   
  
His initial scan told him that he was alone, but in his state he couldn’t be sure.  Timing seemed determined to get the best of him and not a moment later the door creaked open and a familiar face shuffled in.   
  
What the Hell? Was that…was that Bill? What was he doing there? Guarnere didn’t seem to realize that he was no longer unconscious. So he alerted him to the new development by asking him the first thing on his mind.  
  
“What happened? What am I doing here?”  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Gene was lost again. Only this time, he had decided they should stop and use a payphone to get some help finding their way to the farm where Renee was currently residing. Dick and Lipton opted to stay in the car.   
  
Dick turned slowly to look back at Carwood from the driver’s seat. His friend had been extremely quiet.   
  
“What was it you were trying to tell me earlier?”  
  
Lipton looked up at him. He was severely out of it, at least that’s how it appeared to Dick. He began to worry that maybe he should have listened to Carwood earlier at the train station. He hoped he wasn’t getting sick.   
  
Finally, Lipton spoke, “Do you know if Speirs is with them?”  
  
Dick was somewhat surprised by the question. “Um…I don’t know really. I suppose it’s possible. But it seems unlikely. Why?”  
  
“Their train broke down and they’re going to a hospital.”  
  
Dick’s chest tightened.  Suddenly seized with panic.   
  
“What!?”  
  
“Don’t worry, Lewis seemed to be fine on the phone. But he said Ron was hurt pretty badly. I don’t know a lot of Rons. Actually I only know the one….”  
  
Dick was torn between a multitude of emotions.   
  
Relief mainly, that Lew was safe. Guilt and sadness that Ron was hurt and that Lipton had to suffer in silence. And somewhere in there, was the  satisfaction that came with knowing  he had been right. Lipton still cared about Ron.   
  
And he knew with certainty that the feeling was mutual.   
  
However once his wave of emotions had subsided, the only thing that remained was his intense desire to see his boyfriend with his own eyes. And know for sure that he was safe.   
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
“My toe hurts.”  
  
“Hurts how?”  
  
“Like it burns and freezes at the same time. Like a spider bit it or something.”  
  
“Babe I swear if you bitch about that toe one more time I’m just going to have to rip it off.”  
  
Buck supposed that they were all just getting a little cranky due to the heat. Or maybe this was how they always spent their time. He didn’t fucking know.   
  
What he did know was that the bruise on Luz’s temple was getting darker, and since he’d hopped off of Buck’s back he seemed to be stumbling his steps every once in awhile.  
  
He kept holding his hand up to block out the sunlight and Buck feared he might have a concussion. He’d have to keep an eye on him. He doubted that Luz would say anything even if he was feeling bad.  
  
As he swung his small bag of stuff back around to his front and began to dig through it, he couldn’t help but reflect on how strange it felt to have only known Luz for about one solid day. Everything between them felt so natural. It was both the scariest and most awesome thing Buck had ever experienced.   
  
Finally he found what he was looking for. Pulling it out, he made a few adjustments before walking up behind Luz and plopping his UCLA cap onto the shorter man’s head.   
  
Luz looked up at him, confused. Then he covered his confusion with a smirk and tugged down on the bill of the cap. He gave Buck a cheeky grin.   
  
“How do I look?”  
  
“With that shiner? More like a hockey fan. But other than that? Great.”  
  
Luz just smirked again and lit up the cigarette that had miraculously stayed tucked behind his ear.   
  
Buck seriously wanted to take the cigarette out of Luz’s mouth. If he DID have a concussion the last thing he needed was to be smoking. But what right did Buck have to make that decision for him?  
  
After all…he wasn’t his boyfriend.   
  
Sighing, he watched as Luz tried to step on Babe’s mortally wounded toe, cigarette dangling from his lips, and Buck’s hat slightly tilted to the side. Buck was astonished by the rush of affection that filled him at watching Luz goof off.   
  
But did Luz feel the same?  
  
  
  
  
  
Bill looked at a sight he thought he’d never see. A confused and vulnerable Ronald Speirs. Now would have been the perfect time to fuck with the guy. But Bill found that he didn’t want to anymore.   
  
“You don’t remember how you got hurt?”  
  
Speirs’ eyes were cloudy and he looked like he was trying to remember, “I remember leaving the car at the train station.”  
  
Holy Mother. He really didn’t remember. The train ride or anything about it, which meant he certainly didn’t remember what almost happened in that closet.   
  
Bill wasn’t sure what to do. Should he tell him everything? How long had Speirs been thinking the thoughts he’d expressed when they were alone? If he really couldn’t remember, then only Bill would know what had happened. Or what would have happened.   
  
“Well you’re missing a big ass chunk of time then.”  
  
“How big?”  
  
“About an hour.”  
  
“That’s not too bad. I’ve had worse.”  
  
“That’s not…good. How do you feel?”  
  
“Like I have a concussion.”  
  
“I’m sure you do. I wish I could tell you more, but it seems they haven’t found an English speaking doctor in this dump. Do you uh…y’know…want anything?”  
  
“Yeah….I want to know what happened.”  
  
Bill explained the gist of it. The short version he supposed. He left out their having been locked in a closet. He simply told Ron that he’d hit his head on something sharp.   
  
Speirs nodded slowly and then tried to sit up once more. Bill rushed over to help him. After he was sitting up, Ron looked at him as though he’d never seen him before.   
  
“Why are you being so nice to me?”  
  
Part of Bill wanted to tell him, even if he still didn’t get it himself. He didn’t think it was fair that Speirs could just forget about it. But the other part of him told him to keep quiet. Maybe the feelings he had, maybe they’d just go away. Maybe if Ron forgot about it and Bill tried to forget about it, it’d be like it never happened.   
  
Not sure what to say, he just shrugged. They sat in silence for awhile. Bill wished somebody would find a fucking doctor he could actually talk to.   
  
Suddenly Ron stood up and pushed himself away from the bed on the opposite side of Bill. He only got two steps away before he started to collapse, Bill had to frantically jump over the bed to catch him in time.   
  
Grabbing Ron’s shoulders they both slid to the floor and Bill was about to ask Ron what the hell he was doing when Speirs began to look around, apparently confused again.   
  
He slowly brought his hand up to lightly touch his bandaged head. He looked at Bill.  
  
“What happened? What am I doing here?”  
  
Bill glared at the ceiling and at the God that was surely looking down at him, “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me!”  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Babe was a jinx. He knew it. All his friends knew it.   
  
He jinxed everything from important ball games to the weather, to really important declarations of undying love. This trip for example, was all a product of Babe’s inability to keep his mouth shut. Well….kinda.   
  
Like during Bill’s 12th birthday party, when there was a big storm, he’d said ‘Wouldn’t it really suck if lightning hit the house?’….and then it did.   
  
Or when he had been watching the second Harry Potter movie, and he’d said ‘Man Richard Harris is really freaking old. What would they do if he just like croaked while making these movies?’  
Then a couple of days later he totally died.   
  
Luz still hadn’t forgiven him for killing Dumbledore.   
  
So he probably shouldn’t have said, “No one’s going to just GIVE us a ride. Maybe someone will run off the road or something and we can use THEIR car.”  
  
Not two seconds later a red car practically flew past them. Swerving insanely, it pulled off the road and smacked directly into a tree not forty feet away from them.   
  
“SON OF A BITCH!” Babe shouted as they all stared in shock.   
  
Finally they all began to race for the vehicle, hoping no one was hurt.   
Babe got their first, and he quickly pulled open the door and looked to see if the driver was okay.   
  
There was only one person in the car, an older looking man who was laughing way too loud as he took a deep drink from a beer can. Looking over the floor at all the similar looking cans sprawled around he figured the guy was really, really drunk.  
  
That made him feel a little better about what he was about to do.  
  
Reaching in he grabbed the guy’s collar and pulled him out of the car. Psst he wasn’t even buckled in! They were doing this guy a favor!  
  
“Babe what in the Hell do you think you’re doing?” Nixon asked as he reached the car.  
  
Babe just steered the man to the back seat and waved at them all to get into the car. “No time to explain, God has obviously given us a small break. Now get in the car.”  
  
“This has less to do with God and more to do with my theory that you’re some kind of witch!” Luz accused as he stumbled towards the car and tripped over his own feet.  
  
“Luz are you okay?” he asked his friend.   
  
“Yeah. Why?”  
  
“Because you just fell down.”  
  
Luz looked around, apparently realizing that the ground was a lot closer than it had been a moment ago. He just nodded, “Oh…I guess I did.”  
  
Buck pulled him up by his elbow and sat him next to the drunk man in the back of the car.  
“We’ll take it. I’ll drive, we definitely need a hospital ourselves now.”  
  
Babe nodded and got in the passenger seat. “Maybe they can look at my toe!”  
  
“Jesus Christ, Babe.”  
  
  
  
  
  
She looked every bit as beautiful as the last time he’d seen her.   
  
Her hair was pulled back and she had flour on her cheek. He wondered what she had been making before she had answered the door.  
  
“Surprise.” He said with a smile at the girl he’d called his girlfriend for so long. For a moment there was only disbelief on her face and then she broke out into a sunny smile herself.    
  
“Eugene? You are here! Oh my God!” She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him fiercely on the cheek.   
  
Pulling back she looked into his eyes, “What are you doing here?”  
  
“I had to see you. I missed you.”  
  
“Oh I’ve missed you too.” Her voice brought back so many memories. Good memories, of things that made him feel safe and loved.   
  
“I came here to ask you something.”   
  
At this she just giggled. “Oh really. What must you ask that you couldn’t have written for?”  
Even as she joked he could hear the joy in her voice.  
  
He grabbed her hand and got down on one knee. Her eyes grew wide and she put a hand to her mouth.   
  
“Oh my…”  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Lipton sighed. He had long since given up on trying to watch Eugene do something stupid. They were parked too far away to see anything anyways. He glanced at his watch, Gene had already been gone twenty-five minutes.   
  
He looked over at Dick, who was leaning next to him against the car. “Tell me why we didn’t just lock him up somewhere when he first suggested this?”  
  
Dick shrugged and looked thoughtful for a moment, “We weren’t really in the position to do much at the time. Plus we were-are- trying to be good friends. Just like the others are for Babe. If this is what Gene wants then we support him while he wants it. If tomorrow he wants to be a champion figure skater, we’ll support that too.”  
  
Lipton arched an eyebrow and crossed his arms, “I suppose you’re right. Besides, the odds are low that she’ll even say yes. And even if she DID say yes. Don’t weddings take time to organize?”  
  
Dick just nodded.   
  
Suddenly Gene was rushing over to them with a huge smile on his face, but Renee was nowhere to be seen.   
  
“She said yes!”  
  
“What!?” Dick straightened up immediately, “I mean that’s…great. Um…where is she?”  
  
“Inside, we don’t want her Aunt and Uncle to find out.”  
  
“Why not?”  
  
“Cause I doubt they’ll approve of their niece getting eloped.”  
  
“Eloped?” Lipton wasn’t aware that had been part of the plan.  “When?”  
  
Gene just smiled again, “Tomorrow. We’ve got plans to make so let’s go! We have to get a church booked. She’s calling some friends to help her get ready. They’ll meet us at our hotel early tomorrow morning.”  
  
Lipton just turned around and started beating his head on the car.   
  
  
  
  
  
  
They had taken the drunk guy, or Rusty as Luz had decided to name him, and sat him down in the ER. Babe had kept his keys. He decided that he both needed and deserved them more than this Rusty guy did.   
  
Man when did he become so morally flexible?  
  
They had gotten Luz some ice for his head and started knocking on doors looking for Bill and Speirs.    
  
After about twelve minutes they had finally found them. Bill was talking to a doctor, he had what Babe liked to call his ‘adult face’ on and was asking the doctor questions ever so often.   
When he saw them over the doctor’s shoulder he waved them in. They all shuffled in and Babe noticed Speirs wasn’t there.   
  
The doctor turned to leave, but noticed Luz and sighed.   
  
“Let me have a look at you.” He gestured towards the empty bed and Buck helped Luz to go sit.   
Babe and Nixon walked over to Bill.   
  
“Where’s Speirs? Is he okay?” Nixon asked noticing Bill’s concerned face.   
  
“He’s getting some tests done. They want to make sure he doesn’t have brain injuries or serious skull damage. They’ve got him kind of doped up. He’s got a severe concussion. Just keeps asking the same shit over and over. He doesn’t remember anything past the train station. After they run some tests, they’ll stitch up his head, but they want to keep him here 48 hours.”  
  
As they took all that in, Bill jerked his chin over towards the bed. “What’s wrong with Luz?”  
  
Nixon shrugged, “I guess we don’t really know yet. I think he has a mild concussion. They’ll probably give him some pills.” He turned to look at Babe.  
  
“So…that’s two days. What are you thinking?”  
  
Babe looked at him. “Well I think that our friends’ health is more important than getting to Bastogne right now. Also I’m hoping Rusty doesn’t come looking for his car keys in the morning.”  
  
Nixon just smiled at him, impressed.   
  
Bill raised an eyebrow, “Who the fuck is Rusty?”  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Lipton was going to run out of change pretty soon. But he didn’t really care. The longer the phone rang, the more worried he became. “Pick up, pick up, pick up…”  
  
 _“Hello?”_  
  
“Nixon! Thank God. Are you all okay?” he asked the moment he heard his friends voice.   
  
_‘Uh yeah…well, nothing life threatening anyway.”_  
  
“Is Ron okay?”  
  
 _“Yeah…basically.”_  
  
“What do you mean by basically?”  
  
 _“Y’know some…blood loss, a concussion…a little bit of memory loss. All the fun little things that come with a skull fracture.”_  
  
“A WHAT!?”  
  
 _“Mild skull fracture, mild. Jesus! Take my ear off. He’s all doped up, he’ll be dandy before you know it…I think.”_  
  
“God you really suck at this. Look, I have some bad news.”  
  
 _“What?”_  
  
“Gene and Renee are eloping. Tomorrow. I don’t know what church yet. But it’s going to be Catholic. Probably in a ten mile radius of that address I gave you guys. I suggest you figure something out. Soon.”  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Babe knew they were all staring at him.   
  
Luz was the first to ask it. “What are you going to do?”  
  
Babe wasn’t sure.   
  
“He’s going to go break it up. We ALL are.”   
  
They all turned to look at Speirs, who was fussing with the bandage the nurse had put over his stitches.   
  
“No we all AIN’T,” Bill broke in. “You’ve got a skull fracture! Do you get how serious that is? You don’t need to go anywhere. Neither does Luz.”  
  
Babe knew what that meant. If Ron stayed, then Bill would want to stay. If Luz stayed, then Buck would stay. It would just be him and Nixon.  
  
Ron persisted however.   
  
“I know that I didn’t come all the way out here to spend my time in a hospital. They can’t do anything more for me anyways. We can stay for tonight and then go. It’ll take us most of tomorrow morning to get to Bastogne and then we still have time to find the church.”  
  
Babe couldn’t help but smile, “You serious?”  
  
Speirs shrugged and smiled at him. Holy shit Speirs just gave him a genuine smile. How odd.  
“Why not? I think I deserve to be there after all the trouble I’ve gone through. Plus I’m pretty sure that you two wouldn’t make it very far alone.”  
  
Babe found himself hugging another scary person that day.   
  
Speirs would later protest that he was too hopped up on morphine to do anything about it.


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer:** _I’m not making any money off of writing this story. It’s entirely fictional and based on the performances given in the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers and not the actual soldiers. I don’t own anything….so please don’t sue me. I wrote it for your enjoyment so…enjoy!_  
  
  
  
  
Now that Babe had managed to back away from Speirs and to a location that he considered safe (not that Ron could do anything right now, but Babe had learned that Speirs worked in mysterious ways), he felt himself relax for the first time in a long time.   
  
It looked like things might actually begin to work out for them. They’d stay at the hospital for the remainder of the day to give Speirs and Luz some time to recover, and then they’d make their way to Bastogne early in the morning.   
That could work.  He was pretty sure that could work.  
  
Sure nothing ELSE had gone right on their trip so far but Hell maybe they could get to Bastogne without anyone else getting hospitalized, or without any of the local law enforcement popping up.   
  
Or without theft…or fights…or gambling…or drinking…or puking…wasn’t he relaxed just a second ago?  
  
“Okay.”  
  
He finally decided to speak aloud to the other three people in the room. Well…two and a half people.  
  
Buck and Luz were still in another room getting Luz some pills from when he’d gotten his head checked out. And yeah, Speirs is a whole person, but he’d been spacing out a lot. Being on meds was making him all screwy. Sometimes he was all there and sometimes Babe counted him as half a person. Anyways…  
  
“So what if I get there and Gene still wants to marry Renee?”  
  
Bill raised an eyebrow in thought, but didn’t turn his head away from watching Ron. “That’s one of those things you just can’t control Babe. No matter how hard you try.”  
  
“Yeah…like who wins American Idol.”  
  
Bill just looked at Nix. “Is this how you’re going to talk when you’re sober?”  
  
“Who’s sober?”  
  
“Shut up.”  
  
“Bite me.”  
  
“That’s better. Anyway Babe, I don’t think that’ll happen. I mean he wanted to be with you over her last time. You were what was holding him back from proposing to her in the first place. Why should that change?”  
  
“I guess…” Babe could see the point Bill was trying to make, but then again it was Bill’s job to make him feel better about stuff. “I just can’t see him calling off a wedding because of me. Plus I feel kind of crazy chasing after someone who’s chasing after someone else…it sucks.”  
  
Bill didn’t say anything. Babe just shook his head, “Sorry. I’m sure that seems weird...I mean it’s not like you’d know how that feels right?”  
  
Bill smiled tightly at him and looked back at Ron who was sleeping, “Not a clue.”  
  
Nixon chose that moment to start bitching about being hungry. Since Babe was always hungry he thought getting food would be a super idea. And markers! So that they could write on Speirs while he was sleeping.   
  
A drugged and uncoordinated Speirs was not going to come around again…well maybe it would. But still. The opportunity was there…so they should probably get Luz too.   
  
Babe looked over at Bill, who was still lounging next to Ron’s bed, “You coming?”  
  
Bill waved him off, “Nah, I’d feel like a dick for leaving him alone.”  
  
Babe nodded, “I can see that, but Bill man, you hate Speirs anyway. Riiiiight?”  
  
Babe knew he was fishing for info quite obviously but despite his unwillingness to hear about the Speirs/Bill theories earlier, he wanted to know what was going through Bill’s head.   
  
Bill shrugged, “Well maybe I don’t anymore, okay?”  
  
Babe looked at him for a moment before making a face at his best friend, “Is it because you WUV him???”  
  
“Oh go get something to eat you freaky toothpick boy before a gust of wind blows you away.”  
  
“Harsh man...I’ll bring you something back.”  
  
“Whatever.”  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
“Gene has lost his damn mind.”  
  
“Yeah…Carwood you need to stop hitting your head on stuff.”  
  
“I’m trying to beat this experience out of my brain.”  
  
“It’s not that bad...”  
  
“Oh really?”  
  
“Okay so it’s pretty bad. Maybe when they get to the objection part we can say that we think they shouldn’t get married.”  
  
“Dick…he already knows how we feel about this. He doesn’t care. The only person whose opinion he cares about is also the reason he’s doing this.”  
  
“And the one person we aren’t allowed to talk about around him.”  
  
“We should give him a codename.”  
  
“Agreed. Look I know this whole wedding seems futile when you stop to worry about Ron…and the others, but it’s important to Gene.”  
  
“I know. I just can’t help…wait I didn’t say I was _worried_.”  
  
“You’re quite obvious. I know how you feel though. Even though Lewis is okay...it’s hard not to worry. But there’s nothing we can do.”  
  
Carwood took a break from beating his head against the wall to look seriously at his friend. “Dick, what do you think is going to happen when Nix gets to talking with this ex of yours?”  
After a little bit of prying on Lipton’s part, Dick had opened up about his old flame.   
  
Dick looked at him, obviously surprised by the turn in the conversation. “I don’t know. I mean, I know Lew can get jealous sometimes. I mean who doesn’t?-”  
  
“You.”  
  
“But I can’t see them getting into any kind of argument. Besides Buck seemed pretty hung up on Luz when I spoke with him. Just like I knew he would be-”  
  
“You just can’t _resist_ setting people up can you?”  
  
“And Lew will realize that there’s nothing to be jealous about. And yes I can resist it…but why should I? Is it so wrong for me to want to see my friends happy? I mean let’s look at you and Ron. Despite the obvious flaws it could be quite a successful attempt on my part.”  
  
Lipton chewed on his bottom lip for a moment, “Yeah we’ll see huh?”  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
“This place sucks! Why don’t they have a map or something?”   
  
After wandering around looking for a cafeteria for fifteen minutes, Lewis was getting a new reason to not like hospitals.  
  
“Babe what good is a map if you can’t read it?” Nixon asked as he peeked down yet another hallway.  
  
“Well then we should find a picture of a sandwich and draw a question mark next to it or something!”  
  
“What are you guys doing?”  
  
Nixon glared at Buck as he began to approach them. He still didn’t like Compton and his irritatingly attractive self, even if he was into Luz. And even if Dick was to blame for Lew’s being kept in the dark. He wasn’t physically or mentally able to be truly mad at Dick, ever.   
  
He understood how sad that was, that he was pathetically in love and devoted. But it wasn’t like he really deserved Dick anyways…someone more charismatic like Buck deserved someone as great as Dick. Which was probably why the whole situation just made him feel ill.  
  
“What the hell are you doing here?” He snapped, “Shouldn’t you be looking after Luz?”  
  
Buck just shrugged, already used to Nixon’s intense hostility, which only served to piss Lewis off even more. “I thought I’d head over to the cafeteria and find him some food that doesn’t suck. Do you know what he likes?”  
  
Babe nodded excitedly, “Yes! Do you know where the cafeteria is?”  
  
Buck laughed, “Yeah the doctor told me.”   
  
“Woo-hoo! You rule and I adore you, now let’s go get me food before I pass out!”  
  
‘Sure Babe, if by “rule” you mean he’s a total douche who corresponds secretly with my boyfriend,’ Nixon couldn’t help but bitch even in his own head.  While he knew that Babe was just joking he still felt like a loser.  
  
He couldn’t even find the fucking cafeteria for Babe, but Buck was all over it. He was fitting in with all of them in less than two days when Nixon had been struggling to bond with Dick’s friends for years.  
  
Buck laughed and began to tease Babe about being a drama queen, and it took everything in Nixon’s power not to rip his charming, blond head off.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Bill wasn’t sure how much longer he could sit here watching Ron drift off to sleep again. He was fucking bored and he thought he might actually sneak off to find Babe when Speirs decided to speak.   
  
“What are you doing here?”  
  
Bill propped his head up onto his hand to look at him, “Keeping ya company I guess.”  
  
Speirs had a far off look in his eyes and Bill was afraid he was going to forget where he was again.  
  
“You shouldn’t be here.” Even as he said this Speirs stretched out a thin arm to grasp Bill’s sleeve and tug him towards the bed. Confused Bill allowed himself to be pulled up next to Ron as he sat on the edge of his bed next to him.   
  
“Just why shouldn’t I be here?”  
  
Speirs smiled at him softly, and Bill marveled at the way it brightened his face and berated himself at how easily he’d given up on hating the troublemaker.   
  
“Because you don’t like me, remember? Because I’m an asshole.” Speirs said it like they’d had the conversation a dozen times, not that he could know it was what Bill constantly tried to convince himself of.   
  
“Maybe I changed my mind.” Bill suggested and frowned as Ron struggled to lean back up onto his elbows.  
  
Slowly sitting up, Speirs smiled at him again, eyes still cloudy.   
  
“Good.” Was all that he said and before Bill could blink there was a hand hooking behind his neck and Speirs was kissing him.   
  
Like…… _kissing_ him.   
  
Bill waited about two seconds stunned, before fisting his hands in Ron’s shirt and pulling him closer. He supposed that considering this was the first time he’d ever kissed a man (and how the Hell had he wound up here anyhow?) he should be making comparisons to all the women he’d ever kissed. But Bill couldn’t compare the passion Ron was putting into their kiss with anything else.   
  
He sighed as Speirs pulled back from him slightly to gasp out, “I missed you so much.”  
  
Wait…what?  
  
He didn’t have much time to think before Ron was kissing him again and muttering something that sounded like, “I knew you’d forgive me.”  
  
Bill’s brain finally caught up with him and he put his hands on Ron’s shoulders to push him back gently. Ron looked at him with big, terrified eyes and Bill just knew.   
  
He just knew that Ron wasn’t really there. That in his head he was so focused on Lipton that it was bleeding into his reality. That he hadn’t been kissing Bill at all. And Babe was right…it fucking sucked.   
  
“What’s wrong?” Speirs whispered to him, and Bill really wished he was whispering to _him_ , and not to who he thought Bill was.   
  
Bill opened his mouth and decided not to blow his cover, “Nothing…I just think you should go back to sleep. Alright?”  
  
Ron looked at him again before licking his now reddened lips, nodding his head and sliding back down on the bed. “Okay…will you be here when I wake up?”  
  
Bill stared at him for a moment and didn’t know how he was supposed to feel. He just nodded and watched Speirs close his eyes again.   
  
He was going to have to talk with Lipton. Standing up he touched his fingers to his lips and studied the now snoozing man.   
  
“Damn it!”  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Buck unsteadily balanced two trays of food before heading towards the double room that Luz had been set up in for the night. The only other occupant was an appendicitis patient who had been sleeping like the dead the last time he’d checked.   
  
When he got there he rearranged the trays and tapped at the door with his elbow, glad that he’d never had to have a real job like waiting. There was decrease in noise on the other side, but he could almost _hear_ Luz rolling his eyes.   
  
“I’m sorry you can’t come in right now, I’m naked and doing blow off of a hooker’s stomach. Come back tomorrow!”  
  
Buck smiled and shook his head before hollering back, “I brought food!”  
  
Not four seconds later Luz pulled the door open, “Well aren’t you just super useful? I’d tip you but I used all my $1’s on the stripper.”  
  
“I thought it was a hooker.”  
  
“Look who’s paying attention.”  
  
Buck set the food he’d gotten for Luz on the table next to the bed as Luz himself hopped back up there to sit.   
  
Luz fiddled with Buck’s hat, which he had twisted on backwards before inspecting the food.   
  
“You know this was completely unnecessary. They already brought me food.”  
  
“Yeah I noticed. I also noticed you didn’t eat any of it.”  
  
“That’s cause it’s gross. I can’t eat any of this either.” Luz stated to him with a smile.   
  
“What? Why not?” Buck looked at the food he picked up at the cafeteria. Food he’d been assured Luz would eat.   
  
“Because I’m seriously allergic to mushrooms dude.”  
  
“But Nixon told me you loved them.”  
  
That comment made Luz laugh his ass off.   
  
“Haha well he lied. That’s what you get for listening to someone who HATES you man.”  
  
Buck didn’t want to lose his cool in front of Luz, but inside he couldn’t help but be pissed. The angry part of him wanted to go find Nixon and tell him just why he thought Dick didn’t talk about him and also give him an earful about knowingly putting Luz’s health at risk.   
  
“Well you can have mine then, it doesn’t have any mushrooms in it.” He offered trying to save some face.   
  
Luz just held up his hand, “Not that I don’t appreciate it and all, but I think I’ll pass. I’m just not that hungry.”  
  
Buck didn’t buy it. Luz hadn’t eaten anything but that little bit of cereal at breakfast. He had to be hungry, unless he wasn’t feeling well enough to eat…  
  
“Bullshit. Are you feeling sick?”  
  
Luz crossed his arms, “No.”  
  
Buck rolled his eyes, “Of course you wouldn’t say anything even if you were would you?”  
  
That seemed to upset the other man, “You know what? Screw you. You don’t know me, so stop badgering me and acting like you do. Alright?”  
  
Buck just stared at him, “Is that what you’ve been so pissy about?”  
  
“I haven’t been _pissy_!” Luz countered, evidently offended.  
  
“Well you’ve certainly been acting strange recently. What are you so upset about?”  
  
“YOU! THAT! Right there! What you JUST said.” He pointed a finger at Buck, as if it had should be obvious.   
  
Buck looked over at the sleeping man on the other side of the room, hoping that he didn’t stir at the raised voices.   
  
“What are you _talking_ about?” Buck asked. He really was honestly confused.  He’d been trying to do things right for once.   
  
“You acting like you know me so fucking well. I don’t get you man! One minute we’re joking around and making out and then the next thing I know you’re suffocating me with all this constant attention! What are you playing at?”  
  
“Wait…are you ticked because I _like_ you?”  
  
“YES! No! I dunno…”  
  
Buck sighed and put a hand to his forehead before sitting down next to Luz on the bed. “I’m just trying to get to know you. I feel like I know your personality pretty well already, but that’s not enough for me okay!”  
  
Luz just raised his eyebrows and threw his arms about, “But why bother? I mean, I’ll be gone soon anyway…it’s not like you’re ever going to see me again!”  
  
Buck froze and knew that now would be the time to tell Luz about just which Virginia college he was transferring to.   
  
“I haven’t been completely straight forward with you…”  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Babe smiled as he looked at the raccoon eyes he had drawn on Speirs. Bill had seemed in a hurry to get out of there when they’d gotten back and he’d taken the food Babe had brought him out into the hallway to eat. Otherwise they probably wouldn’t be getting away with this.  
  
Nixon snorted and snatched the marker from Babe’s hand. Babe couldn’t help but think that Gene would get a kick out of this. Of course outwardly he’d frown upon taking advantage of a drugged up patient, but secretly he’d love it.   
  
Nixon handed Babe the marker back. Babe looked at Speirs and raised an eyebrow at Nixon.   
  
“Did you write ‘Balls’ on his forehead?”  
  
“Yeah...like in Garden State.”  
  
“Oh yeah…haha you WOULD like that movie.”  
  
“Shut up…let’s get out of here before Bill catches us.”  
  
“Luz is so next!”  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Unfortunately Luz wasn’t so next because when they’d gone to commit their crime, they found him playing tonsil hockey with Nixon’s least favorite jock. However Babe was determined to get him later.  
  
So they decided that they’d find somewhere to sleep that was close by. They’d bummed some blankets off of a nurse and pushed some chairs together out in the lobby.   
  
Babe hung a leg off the end of his makeshift bed. “It’s not too bad.”  
  
Nixon glared at him, “What the hell are you talking about? It’s way too small.”  
  
“That’s not what your mom said.”  
  
“Oh my God…”  
  
“She said that a few times though.”  
  
“Shut up!”  
  
“Haha sorry…Heya Nix?”  
  
Nixon threw an arm over his face, “What Babe?”  
  
“Do you think everything will work out? When we find them?”  
  
Nixon stopped to actually think about it. About him and Dick, Gene and Babe, about poor Renee who didn’t even know what she was party to and about all the problems he was anticipating between Lipton, Speirs and Bill all being in the same room.   
  
He thought about it the way he thought about everything else, cynically. But then he looked at Babe, who he now considered a friend and thought about how young and hopeful he looked. And he lied.   
  
“Yeah Babe. Everything will work out just fine.”


	9. Chapter 9

  
**Disclaimer:** _I’m not making any money off of writing this story. It’s entirely fictional and based on the performances given in the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers and not the actual soldiers. I don’t own anything….so please don’t sue me. I wrote it for your enjoyment so…enjoy!_  
  
  
  
  
  
Sleep for Babe did not come easily that night. He was too busy thinking about the day to come and he kept waking up in the hope that it was already morning.  
  
It was a lot like the way he slept before Christmas, or the first day of school. He was anxious and excited. Well in this case mostly anxious…he couldn’t really stay asleep.   
  
So naturally he got up to go Sharpie some more faces.   
  
  
  
  
When it was finally morning and light was beginning to come through the hospital windows, Babe felt that it was time to start waking some bitches up….or something.   
  
Bill was probably a good place to start.   
  
When he actually got to Speirs’ room he really shouldn’t have been surprised to see that Ron was already up and apparently ready to go.   
  
Ron looked at him quickly when he slipped in, all drowsiness gone. He looked both genuinely surprised and pleased to see that Babe was awake.   
  
“Did you wake the others yet?” He asked in a sort of mumble as he went through his bag which they had brought to him the night before. Babe assumed he was looking for a less bloody shirt.   
  
“Nah I thought I’d get you guys first.”  Babe noticed that someone (Bill) had attempted to scrub the marker off of Ron’s forehead but it was called permanent for a reason and was only slightly faded. Babe smiled to himself. “Maybe you should do it.”  
  
Speirs nodded and quickly gave up looking in his bag before rummaging through Bill’s things and just taking one of his shirts instead. Babe looked at him.   
  
Speirs stared back, “You threw up on my other one remember?”  
  
“Oh right…did I apologize for that?”  
  
“…No.”  
  
“Sorry.”  
  
Speirs rolled his eyes, zipped up his bag and walked out. Babe went over to where Bill was snoozing in a nearby chair and started to push at him with his foot.  When that didn’t work he just smacked him upside the head.   
  
“Ow!” Bill slapped at Babe’s hands as he sat up.   
  
“Oh good you’re up. We need to get going.”  
  
“Where’s Ron?”  
  
“Up, about, back to his hard ass ways, and not in need of your babysitting. He also took one of your shirts.”  
  
“Oh. Well you threw up on his other one remember?”  
  
“I know! I’m sorry already! ....You know I noticed you didn’t try to wash off the raccoon eyes.”  
  
Bill was silent for a moment. “I thought they looked kind of cute.”  
  
“You’re so weird sometimes.”  
  
  
  
  
  
  
“Wake up.”   
  
After the sharp command and a moment of rough shaking, Buck did. Luz was already yawning and stretching next to him and he looked up to see Speirs frowning at the two of them.   
  
Luz looked at Speirs’ face before noticing that Speirs was looking in between the two of them.   
“What?”  
  
Ron just shook his head, “You two look ridiculous.” That said he turned and left.   
  
Luz looked over at Buck, “We look ridiculous? Does he _know_ that someone wrote ‘Balls’ on his forehead?”  
  
“Did you know someone wrote ‘Fairy’ on yours?”  
  
“WHAT!?”  
  
But it was true, and Buck had to admit-Luz looked pretty funny. Someone had indeed written ‘Fairy’ in looping cursive across his forehead. A large diamond shape was around his right eye and lines had been drawn going down from the left in a Boy George kind of fashion (and Buck could appreciate that joke) and stars had been doodled all over his cheeks.   
  
“I’m sure I look bad. You just look really, really gay.” Buck wasn’t sure if that was as reassuring as he meant it to be.   
  
Luz sighed, “They got you with the old mustache and unibrow thing. Nice goatee though.”  
  
Buck groaned, “Your friends suck.”  
  
That statement unfortunately caused Luz to start humming something that sounded suspiciously like the Spice Girls.  
  
 _“If ya wanna be my lover…”_  
  
“ **Stop**.”  
  
“Make me!”  
  
“Oh I will.”  
  
“Yeah my ass you will–oomph!”   
  
Buck kissed him and hoped no one cared if they took a little longer to get up.   
  
  
  
  
  
  
Of the many things that Nixon was notorious for, Babe felt that his inability to get up in the mornings couldn’t be too bad. That was before he had to deal with it firsthand, that and the fact that it was seriously holding them the fuck up!  
  
They were all just staring at him. Buck stroked his Sharpie goatee in thought. “Maybe we should pour water on him.”  
  
Luz snapped his fingers, “I remember this time when Dick accidently threw a cup of pee on him! That woke him up.”  
  
Bill glared, “We are NOT going to pee on him.”  
  
“All I’m saying is it worked.”  
  
The conversation ended the way most of them had ended recently, with Speirs ignoring them all, going over to Nixon and flipping him onto the floor with a thud.  
  
“Son of a bitch!”  
  
Speirs just clapped his hands together, “He’s up.”  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
When they got to the car, the one that Babe had apparently “borrowed” from a drunk (a fact Ron was fairly impressed with), it became apparent that it was going to be a pretty tight fit.   
  
“Okay,” Bill started slowly as the others seemed to be practically asleep, “I’ll drive. Babe, Speirs and Luz you all definitely have to be in the back.”  
  
“What? Why? I thought I’d at least get shotgun!’ Babe complained.   
  
“Because Luz and Speirs are injured, plus I need to fit four of you back there and you and Ron are easily the skinniest-”  
  
Ron broke in at that, “Excuse me?”  
  
“- _thinnest_ in the bunch, so that’s a given. Ron, you and Luz should sit in the middle so you don’t somehow manage to bump your heads against the windows.”  
  
Ron just nodded, it was funny to watch Bill fuss over the way every one was seated. He was such a closet control freak.   
  
Bill seemed to have decided something in his head, “Okay, Babe I want you behind me, then Ron then Luz then Nixon. Buck’s up front.”  
  
Nixon just snorted, “Thanks man.”  
  
Bill shrugged, “I thought I’d spare everyone from having to deal with Buck and Luz sucking face.”  
  
“Whatever.”  
  
Ron knew that wasn’t the real reason. Looking over the way they were seated it was obvious to him that Bill had lined them up in a manner of safety. He had put Babe behind his chair because in the case of a crash, the driver automatically protected his side. Therefore Babe was in the safest position.   
  
Ron wasn’t sure why Bill put him in the next safest. Wasn’t sure why he was being so kind to him still. Especially after what had happened last night…   
  
At first he had thought that maybe he had been dreaming. Though he knew on some level he was kissing someone…it wasn’t until he woke up early that morning that he realized it had been Bill.    
  
When he’d decided to come on this trip, he’d done so with every intention of confronting Lipton. What he would say when he saw him he didn’t know yet. He’d seen the opportunity, however, and he took it. He figured that helping Babe out might get him back into his good graces as well.   
  
Another reason he had agreed to come along, other than the fact that they were all so completely hopeless, was out of the need for a challenge.   
  
He had fallen into somewhat of a routine at work. Become too comfortable where he was. Trying to figure out how to fix whatever it was about him that had driven Carwood away. But he couldn’t pretend to be the good son forever. It just wasn’t in him…clearly. And there were certainly plenty of challenges to be had by tagging along.   
  
Challenges like Bill Guarnere.   
  
Ron had been pushing Bill’s buttons since the day he met him. Not only was it entirely too easy, but it also held an element of danger. And few things attracted men like himself more than danger. He was always trying to see how far he could go before Bill truly snapped.   
  
He had it figured that Bill’s passionate hate for him was rooted in something much different for quite some time, but he had never actually acted on the theory.   
  
Until he had kissed him last night. And from what he could remember, Bill hadn’t shied away. Of course he also hadn’t made any attempt to discuss the incident.   
  
On the one hand, he could simply be embarrassed about it. Or he might not be aware that Ron actually remembered. One thing was very clear however, Bill wasn’t angry anymore.   
  
Before it had all been about messing with him, pushing as hard as he could before good ole’ Bill showed him how he _really_ felt. Good or bad. Ron had wanted to take it all the way. And now…he wished he hadn’t. Because Bill actually seemed to care about him.   
  
And Ron didn’t really know a lot of people who did.   
  
The apparent train wreck wasn’t the only life threatening injury or situation he had ever been in. But it was one of the few that had forced him to think about what he really, truly wanted.   
  
Since before the moment he woke up in the hospital, Lipton hadn’t strayed far from his thoughts. Even now, despite what had happened, Ron was overwhelmed by his desire and his need to see him.   
  
Because he was pretty certain that he loved him. But he couldn’t be sure. Wouldn’t be sure until he saw him.   
  
But now there was Bill. There was a situation whether Bill chose to acknowledge it or not.  Bill was…  
  
Bill was a mistake.  One that Ron never should have wanted to make. But he had.   
  
As they piled into the car, Ron decided to let Luz take the middle seatbelt. Because eventually Bill would realize that Luz was more important to him than he was. And he’d stop caring about Ron.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Renee couldn’t calm the flutter in her heart as she looked at herself in the mirror. This wasn’t an ordinary dress she was wearing. It was her wedding dress.  Her _wedding_ …  
  
She still couldn’t believe it. She had never been the kind of girl to plan or obsess about her future ceremony. All that mattered to her was that she loved the man she married. That they made each other happy. But now that it was here she couldn’t help but be overwhelmed.  
  
Maybe she had never planned on eloping but it felt right somehow, Eugene had come all this way for her hand and eloping felt romantic and honest in some poetic way she couldn’t really vocalize. Of course it was also the only way it could be done. Her family…they wouldn’t understand. They all had such high expectations of her. They were always telling her to get a career before a husband. Her father was the only one to understand that she needed to make her own decisions. Whatever they might be.   
  
Of course with such an important decision having already been made, and an even more important step lying ahead, she had questions. Questions she wasn’t sure she really wanted answers for.   
  
The most important being- was this what she really wanted? There were so many voices telling her she was too young, she had too much ahead of her. But she didn’t know if they were her own ideas or merely the voices of her overbearing family.   
  
Another important question was- why now? What had made Eugene come after her when he could have saved her the heartache by asking her before she left? She had forced herself to come to terms with their relationships’ end, and just when she thought that she was getting over him, he came in and swept her off her feet. They had ended it mutually; it had seemed the only way…so what had changed his mind?  
  
Like she said…questions…  
  
  
  
  
  
  
The car had eventually gotten silent and Bill wasn’t sure whether or not he was pleased.  
Nixon’s bitching and Luz and Buck’s flirting had helped to keep him awake. Of course there was the unspoken plea from Babe to keep quiet about Ron’s face paint, but now just about all communication had died down rather quickly and there was mostly silence. But that didn’t mean everyone was asleep.  
  
Bill glance up in the rearview mirror at the only passenger still awake. All he saw was the tousled hair along with the marked and partially bandaged forehead, but he could imagine the large dark eyes staring out the window. Thinking whatever the hell people like Ronald Speirs thought about.   
  
“Don’t ya think you should sleep a little?”   
  
Ron jerked his head towards the front of the car, “I slept plenty at the hospital, don’t worry.”  
  
Bill had to fight the urge to tell him that he wasn’t _worried_ , although by now it seemed to be a pointless argument.   
  
“Yeah well, just try not to get hit in the head for another few days. If you think you can manage that is.”  
  
Ron laughed softly, “There he is. I was wondering when you would drop all of the mother hen bullshit. It’s a good thing everyone fell asleep, must have been a hard act to keep up.”  
  
Bill tensed at the words and couldn’t help but be offended, “It’s not bullshit, and it’s not an act either. Is it so fucking hard to believe that I give a shit what happens to you?”  
  
“I’m pretty sure you were trying to beat the crap out of me not one day ago.”  
  
“Hey you started that!”  
  
“Did I?”  
  
“Oh...right. I didn’t mean to hit a sore spot…what I said about Lip and you…I’m sorry.”  
  
“No you’re not. But you shouldn’t be. You were right. Besides you were doing exactly what I do to you.”  
  
Bill looked back at him again, “Yeah? What’s that?”  
  
“You were pushing my buttons. And while it’s rather easy with you, I usually try not to let others get to me. You know Bill; you’re one of the few people who can rile me up like that. That’s what I like about you. We’re so similar…but you’re not like me in all the places that it counts. I do things for myself, and you do things for other people. I’ve always been jealous of that.”  
  
Bill shrugged, not sure what to think.  “You learn something new every day.”  
  
He could hear Speirs tap a soft beat on his knee in the silence, “Maybe you can tell me something.”  
  
Bill glanced back at him once, only this time Speirs looked back. “Okay…”  
  
“Why _did_ you kiss me back?”  
  
Bill was so shocked that he almost didn’t see the spare tire lying in the middle of the street.  
He made the mistake of swerving while at the same time he hit the brakes, hard.  
  
Buck and Luz jerked awake-startled. Nixon stayed entirely still and asleep, Babe shot up quickly to shout “But I LOVE chocolate!” before dropping back into his undoubtedly fucked up dream and Speirs…  
  
Speirs flew forward like a shot and Bill just barely had time to throw out his arm before Ron went face first through the windshield. But he was not quick enough to stop him from smacking his head on the dash.   
  
Bill swore as Speirs seemingly passed out. Buck looked at him in shock. Luz spoke.  
  
“We are NOT going back to that fucking hospital!”  
  
Bill quickly began to pull off of the road as Ron groaned and started to move. Bill parked the car, opened his door and got out. Reaching back in he grabbed Speirs and pulled him out and to his feet.  
  
Leaning a wobbling Ron against the car he leaned in to speak to Buck. “Everyone wait here. We’ll be back in a few.”  
  
He helped his shaking companion walk over to lean against a tree before he started with the shouting. Bill was amazed he lasted that long really. He hadn’t yelled at anyone in awhile.   
  
“Why the FUCK weren’t you wearing a seatbelt? Are you trying to get killed? Is that what you want?”  
  
Speirs looked pale and like he wanted to grasp at his head but instead he stood his ground.  
“Me? Maybe if you had been watching the road and not looking at me we wouldn’t have almost crashed. Besides there was only one seatbelt so I gave it to Luz.”  
  
“WHY? Your injury is much more severe and Luz is used to not wearing a seatbelt or do you not remember that shitty jeep you got him! Why would you do that?”  
  
“Because the last thing I would want is for something horrible to happen to Luz and for you to realize that you wished it had been me!”  
  
Bill stopped and looked at Ron who was breathing heavily. Bill wasn’t sure if it was the adrenaline or if he was feeling ill. But when he started to sway, Bill rushed forward and wrapped an arm around his waist and, despite himself, placed the other one on his jaw.   
  
He sucked in a breath and looked Ron in the eye, “I would never, ever, wish that.”  
  
Ron closed his eyes and Bill could feel him shaking and wished he wasn’t such a shitty driver.   
  
“I really do love Carwood.”  
  
Bill nodded, “I know.”   
  
But he kissed Ron anyway, because after they got to Bastogne, he knew he’d never get another chance.  
  
And Speirs kissed Bill back, because after all the shit he put him through, Ron thought he could at least give him that much.    
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Everyone in the car was awake by the time Bill buckled his seatbelt and started the engine.   
Babe cleared his throat, “So are we going to acknowledge the fact that you two were making out?”  
  
“NO!” Bill and Speirs shouted at the same time.   
  
Speirs, who was now sitting up front (reasoning be damned) turned around to glare at them all, “And I swear to God if any of you mention this to Carwood I will hunt you down, cut your tongue out, shove it down your throat and watch you choke on your own blood.”  
  
There was complete silence. Babe even put a protective hand over his mouth.   
  
Bill decided that he could appreciate the silence. As well as other things.   
  
He looked at Ron who was licking his lips, not knowing how crazy he was driving Bill. He turned to look at the road and gritted his teeth.  
  
Yeah, he was going to have a talk with Lip.   
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Some men looked at marriage as a trap, an execution date, a great beyond from which there was no dignified return. Gene _liked_ to think he wasn’t one of those men.   
  
That wasn’t to say that he didn’t have worries, apprehensions, and all the sorts of insecurities that grooms were supposed to have on their big day. But he had been the one steering the relationship to this point and he had spent quite some time freaking out about the whole thing.  
  
He knew that in the end the only thing that mattered was love. Corny as it may sound, Gene felt that if two people loved each other, then marriage shouldn’t change that.   
  
He smoothed out a small crease in his tux, not sure why he was thinking about this now. Renee was only a couple of hallways away- getting ready. In a little under an hour, he would be getting married.   
  
Which was what he wanted…because _Renee_ loved him.   
  
But was that what this was supposed to be about? Who loved him more? If anything, his decision to come to Europe should have been made based on who _he_ loved more.   
  
Or maybe the fact that Renee didn’t puke when he confided his feelings to her made him love her more? And again…why the hell was he thinking about this now?  
  
So, for the first time in awhile, Gene decided not to ignore the tiny voice in the back of his head. And he let himself think about something he had been trying incredibly hard not to think about.  Because he knew that when he started…he might never stop. He had to ask himself a question.  
  
Just what made him love Babe?  
  
Babe was…amazing. He was fun, silly and spontaneous. He was loyal to his friends no matter what, and to Gene. He never took anything too seriously…which was something Gene could never do.   
  
He always said what he was thinking no matter how ridiculous it might sound aloud. And even if he got embarrassed, he would never apologize for being himself.   
  
Babe was an adventure, although not always a mystery-but then Babe didn’t keep secrets.   
  
Babe was pink lips that Gene could watch talk forever, even if he was talking about some evil squirrel that had chased him to class that day. Babe was red hair that was light in the summer, and dark and bright in the winter and Gene loved to mess it up whenever Babe had obviously tried to fix it.   
  
Babe was soft hands that he wanted to hold while they watched TV on that crummy couch. Babe was long limbs that Gene wanted to be wrapped and tangled up in until he didn’t know who was who.  
  
And when he smiled….  
  
When he smiled Gene would feel so warm and flush with contentment that he could stay that way for eternity and never have to worry about being cold again.   
  
What the Hell was he doing?  
  
Even if Babe didn’t want him, even if Babe didn’t love him…he couldn’t marry Renee. Because he loved Babe more than anyone he had ever met, would meet or could dream up.  
  
He couldn’t be afraid of being alone, not anymore. Because someone by his side wouldn’t make him happy. Babe would, even if Gene could only be his friend, having Babe in his life was the only thing that could ever truly make him happy.   
  
What was he going to do?   
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Babe couldn’t believe it. They were FINALLY in Bastogne.  But they were running out of time.   
  
“We’re not going to have time to look in all of these churches. What if we pick the wrong one?” He knew he probably sounded kind of frantic but, damn it, time was of the essence!  
  
Speirs and Buck looked over the short list that Lipton had given them and Buck crossed a couple   
out with his fingers. “Those aren’t catholic, so that only leaves these 3.”  
  
Speirs just nodded to himself, “So we’ll split up into twos, that way at least two of us can find the right place.”  
  
Babe jerked at the suggestion, “Split up? Are you for real? That’s how people get axed!”  
  
Bill rolled his eyes, “Yeah Babe in horror movies, not shitty romantic dramadies like this one.”  
  
“What movie are you watching? This is a horror...” Nixon mumbled.   
  
“Blah Blah,” Luz griped over them. “Who cares? We split, Babe keeps the phone and if one of us finds the church first we’ll call from a payphone.”  
  
Speirs nodded, “Agreed. Babe, you should stay with Bill. You two take the car. Nixon and I will go look at this one, Buck and Luz can go look at the one downtown and you guys can drive out to this one. Sound good?”  
  
Bill brought his eyes away from one of their newly acquired maps to look at Speirs and Babe just knew that part of Bill wanted to go with him.   
  
Instead Bill just nodded and they all got out of the car.   
  
Buck and Luz basically split right away with a wave over their backs. Crazy kids.   
  
Speirs however grabbed Bill’s elbow and pulled him away for a moment. Like Babe even wanted to know what was being said there. Actually it probably wouldn’t be that bad. But his basic view  
of Bill HAD been shattered and all.   
  
Nixon cleared his throat. “So Babe, be careful. Just don’t jinx anything, drink anything or try to tie your shoes alone and you should be just fine.”   
  
Babe stuck his tongue out and Nix just laughed and pulled him into a hug. “Like I said, it’ll work out. Just be careful.”  
  
All Babe could really do was nod, touched. Not just by Nixon’s words but by the actions of them all. He was again overwhelmed by how hard they were trying to help him. Although somewhere along the way, he knew they all found their own reasons for doing this. But he was moved all the same.   
  
“Okay,” he whispered and hugged Lewis back.   
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Ron wasn’t sure what exactly he wanted to say. But it wasn’t like he didn’t have feelings for the man in front of him. Because it was obvious he did. Plus Lipton and Bill were friends, they couldn’t leave all this unresolved, it would just blow up in their faces.   
  
Bill looked down at his feet and then caught Ron’s eye, “So this really sucks.”  
  
All of a sudden Speirs wasn’t sure if he was doing the right thing, he wasn’t sure of anything anymore, “Maybe I shouldn’t go. I could stay with you and when we find them…”  
  
Even though he didn’t finish saying it, Bill knew anyways and cut him off, “No…no you need to be with Lipton.”  
  
Now Ron was confused, wasn’t this what Bill had wanted?   
  
“Why are you saying that?”   
  
Bill seemed to pause, like he was going to say something he couldn’t believe he was about to say.   
  
“I'm saying it because it's true. Inside of us, we both know you belong with Lipton. If we find them and you don’t take your chance you'll regret it. Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life.”  
  
Speirs ignored the familiar feeling that he had heard that before, “But what about us?”  
  
“We’ll always have Paris.”  
  
“But…we were never in Paris.”  
  
“Look! I'm no good at being noble, but it doesn't take much to see that the problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. Someday you'll understand that.”  
  
“I’m kind of confused.”  
  
Instead of a reply there were firm lips on his and Bill squeezed his hip tightly.  
  
After a few moments Bill pulled away, “Here’s looking at you kid.”  
  
Then he got into the car, leaving behind a very confused Ronald Speirs.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Babe buckled in and looked over at Bill.   
  
“So how’d it go?”  
  
“I, uh, I quoted Casablanca,”  
  
“…How much?”  
  
“A lot.”  
  
“Oh my. Has he seen that movie?”  
  
“Apparently not.”  
  
“Well then I’m sure it was very touching.”  
  
“Shut up.”  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Buck looked over at Luz who he was pretty sure was reading their map upside down.  He walked up and snatched it away.  
  
“I’ll do that, you can hail us cab.”  
  
Luz just made a face, “A taxi? Do they even have those around here? Can’t we just walk there? I thought this was the close one.”  
  
Buck nodded, “It is close, but walking means risking you getting dizzy and falling down, and hitting your head again…and I see a string of taxis across the street, so get one.”  
  
“But the cab could crash, and that would be worse.”  
  
Buck just rolled his eyes and waved at a taxi driver who was coming back to his car, “Highly unlikely.”  
  
“Yeah but-”  
  
By that point the man had driven over and Buck grabbed Luz around the waist and flung him as gently as he could into the backseat.   
  
Sliding in next to him he pointed at the map for the driver. He wasn’t actually fluent in whatever the hell the language was.   
  
“Hey don’t do that!” Luz shoved him hard against the door as the man started to drive. “I don’t like being manhandled!”  
  
“Don’t lie.”  
  
“Why did we just HAVE to take a cab?”  
  
“Because we’re starting to get really good at making out in moving vehicles.”  
  
“……….”  
  
“If you catch my drift.”  
  
“For the millionth time, I totally catch it. Just say that stuff up front.”  
  
“Is that a yes?”  
  
“Duh.”  
  
Talking kind of ceased after that.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
“So what’s the plan?” Nixon asked as they came up to a payphone next to a street vendor.   
  
Speirs grabbed the phone and put in the change, “Mainly we just need to call a taxi and then-“  
  
Suddenly Speirs was bent over clutching at his head, “Fuck!”  
  
Nixon rushed to grab him as he slid to the ground in obvious pain, “Ron-shit are you going to be okay?”  
  
“It’s my fucking head, I need to take some pills, grab me something to drink OK?”  
  
Nixon nodded, he was freaked out enough to do just about anything. Getting up he rushed over to the vendor close by and bought what he was 90% percent sure was some kind of green tea.   
  
He gave it a sniff, yeah sure tea.   
  
“Here,” He handed it to Speirs who took a drink and then knocked back a handful of different pills. Some of which Lewis wasn’t sure the doctor had given him.   
  
Speirs took a few deep breaths and then motioned to the phone, “You call. I’ll get up in a second.”  
  
Nixon just nodded and dialed information. Speirs handed the tea to him, claiming he didn’t want anymore. Lewis just shrugged and took a drink.   
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
By the time he was getting into the taxi, Speirs felt like he was going to die. It was as if every organ in his body wanted to come up his throat and the pain in his head which was  
supposed to have gotten better after he took the pills, felt basically the same. On top of that he was so dizzy, he could hardly sit upright.   
  
“Nixon, are you sure that what you gave me was tea?”  
  
Nixon, who was trying to buckle his seatbelt to the window looked over, “Um…no…no I’m not.”  
  
Why did he sound so wasted? Even if they had consumed what Ron was now almost positive was some form of alcohol, Nixon was practically immune.   
  
“Where is it?”  
  
“I have decided that I drank it…”  
  
“Where’s the bottle idiot?”  
  
When Nixon didn’t even snark back, Ron knew he was right. Lewis tossed him the empty bottle and Speirs skipped over most of the gibberish on the back until he hit the ingredients.  
  
Oh…fuck. He was pretty sure under what looked like a warning label…that it read Absinthe.  
  
No wonder he felt like shit and Nixon felt great.    
  
This should be fun.  
  
Groaning he laid down and rode out the pain hoping that he might get some of the herbs more desired effects before he saw Lipton. The last thing he wanted was to pass out, or throw up in front of him….again.   
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Luz jogged back to where Buck was waiting by the cab, “This one ain’t it. There’s no weddings, or services of any kind happening in there.”  
  
Buck nodded and opened the door for him, “Well then I guess we should head towards where Speirs and Nixon are going. That’s the furthest away.”  
  
“Sure why not. Should we call Babe and let him know?”  
  
“Yeah, let’s find us a phone.”  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
“We are so fucking lost.”  
  
“We’re not lost okay? I just don’t remember what street it was on…or what street I need to get on to get to the street that it’s on.”  
  
“So we’re lost.”  
  
“Yeah…”  
  
“Damn it Bill!”  
  
Bill sucked in a breath when Babe’s voice jumped up another octave, “Hey, on the upside this might not even be the right church.”  
  
Babe nodded, “Yeah or it COULD be the right church and Gene is about to- oh TURN NOW right there I see it!”  
  
“What!?”  
  
“TURN LEFT NOW!”  
  
Bill swerved left then hit the brakes as he saw a church not too far up ahead. Babe was already unbuckling his seatbelt.   
  
“Pull over, pull over, pull over.”  
  
Bill pulled over.   
  
“Thank you!” Babe hopped out of the car and started rushing down the sidewalk.   
  
As he ran towards the church he could see flowers outside the doors and here piano music coming from inside. There was a wedding going on in there and he was going to stop it!  
  
Rushing up the steps two at a time he pulled back the doors.   
  
“STOP! Stop everything you guys CANNOT do this! I-"  
  
Babe trailed off as every single head in a very crowded church turned to gape at him.   
  
…Why were they all wearing black?  
  
Babe really hoped that wasn’t a casket he was seeing.   
  
He felt his mouth drop open in horror, and just as he started to stammer out an apology, the cell phone rang.   
  
More heads turned. He answered it, still frozen to the spot. “Now is a horrible time. Who is this?”  
  
 _“Babe? It’s Buck-listen we checked out our church and it’s definitely not here.”_  
  
“Hmmmmm well it’s DEFinitely not here either.”  
  
 _“Well that only leaves one place.”_  
  
“THAT’S IT! YES! YOU FOUND IT! YAY!”  
  
Some of the angry faces were coming towards him now.   
  
“Yeah I gotta go.”  
  
  
  
  
Bill was just getting out of the car when he saw Babe running towards him.   
  
“Are they in there?”  
  
Babe shook his head quickly, “No, now start the car!”  
  
Just then three very large men came running not ten feet behind Babe. Bill jumped in the car and threw Babe’s door open for him.   
  
“What the Hell did you do?”  
  
“Nothing!”  
  
“Looks like something to me.”  
  
“It was an honest mistake! Now shut up and drive bitch!”  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Lipton wasn’t sure why he was so nervous, this wasn’t HIS wedding...for obvious reasons.   
  
Maybe he was disappointed in Gene. Maybe he was worried about Ron. Maybe he just really wanted to see Babe come rushing through those doors.  
  
Whatever the reason, he excused himself from the bench he was sharing with Dick. Walking down the corridor he spotted a confessional.   
  
It looked empty. He wouldn’t exactly be hiding in there…just taking a minute to collect his thoughts.   
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
When the taxi finally pulled up to the church, Speirs wasn’t feeling as much pain but the dizziness had heightened and Nixon had started to get philosophical on him. It was definitely time to get out of the cab.   
  
“But if you really love someone, I mean like soul mate love someone-”  
  
Speirs cut him off, “No one cares Nixon, now get out.”  
  
As he shoved Nixon out, and paid the driver, he couldn’t help notice how miserable the church looked.   
  
If that wasn’t a sign he didn’t know what was.   
  
Dragging himself up the steps he let Nixon open the doors, there were only about ten steps in when-  
  
“Oh thank God.”  
  
Nixon suddenly had Dick Winters pulling him tightly against his body. “Are you okay Nix?”  
  
Nixon seemed to lose some of his alcohol induced cool for a moment, “NO I am not okay! I have some very serious questions for you! Like catastrophic questions and if-”  
  
Speirs cut him off again, “Pipe down. Look Dick he’s basically done the equivalent of smoking a very large joint so, be patient. Where’s Lipton?”  
  
Dick seemed to just now be taking in his presence, “Ron are you okay? You look kind of pale, and did you know someone wrote ‘Balls’ on your forehead?”  
  
Ron had not known that. He quickly touched his forehead, “That little shit, I’m going to kill him!”  
  
Dick and Nixon got quiet and looked around. Ron remembered that he was in a church.   
  
“Shit. Sorry! Sorry! Man…digging a hole here. So Lip?”  
  
“Umm last I saw him he went down the hallway over to the left, that was…ten minutes ago? Where are the others?”  
  
“On their way.”  
  
Ron knew he should call but…first things first. He headed in the direction Dick had pointed.   
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
“Could you drive a little faster please?”  
  
“I’m already flooring it Babe, I’m surprised we haven’t been pulled over yet.”  
All of a sudden lights were flashing and the sound of sirens were unsettlingly close behind.    
  
Damn it.  
  
“Now who’s the jinx?”  
  
“Can it.”  
  
Bill pulled over and rolled down the window as an officer approached the car. The policeman leaned over and began to speak in maybe- Dutch? Babe didn’t know, they still couldn’t understand anything anyone said in this country.   
  
When the officers saw their, more than likely, confused faces he motioned to what Babe could only guess was a second officer and then retreated back to his car.   
  
The second officer approached this time and spoke in English, which was so nice to hear that Babe almost didn’t care that they were probably in trouble.   
  
“You both need to step out of the car, now.”  
  
Ummm…okay.   
  
Babe unbuckled his seatbelt and scrambled out.   
  
Bill decided to ask the questions, “So what’d we do? Other than probably speed.”  
  
The officer skirted them cautiously and then glanced at the car’s plates. “This car has been reported stolen. You’ll both have to come with us.”  
  
“WHAT?”  
  
“Stolen is kind of harsh-”  
  
“You don’t understand!” Babe was getting incredibly frustrated now, “I have to get to this church like really soon! I’ve been through way too much not to go!”  
  
The officer wasn’t in the mood, apparently, to deal with Babe’s personal problems. “The only thing you HAVE to do, is come with us. “  
  
With one more wave the other cop started to approach and they certainly looked like they meant business.   
  
Shit, shit, shit…what was he going to do? Getting arrested was just NOT an option. Certainly not at this point.   
  
Maybe he could…….  
  
But he really shouldn’t.   
  
He had to.   
  
He tossed a look Bill’s way and jerked his head towards the now abandoned police cruiser and hoped that all of their time spent in silent communication as kids had paid off.   
  
Bill’s eyes widened and he looked at Rusty’s car.   
  
Babe looked at the keys in Bill’s hand. Duh.   
  
They both started running towards the cruiser at the same time, just barely dodging the officers’ attempts to tackle them.   
  
Bill hopped into the driver’s seat and started the car faster than anything Babe had ever seen, and they were peeling away before the officers could even get close.   
  
Even Babe watched enough COPS to know that you never abandoned the cruiser. Or ANY vehicle, especially with the key still in the ignition.   
  
His heart was beating so quickly he wasn’t sure he could breathe. He looked over at Bill.   
  
“We just jacked a police car!”  
  
“Nice of you to catch up.”  
  
“Remember all the times in the last few days when we thought we were going to get arrested?”  
  
“How could I forget?”  
  
“Well we are going to get arrested for realz this time. “  
  
“Most likely.”  
  
“Lame.”  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
“Dick we have to talk!”  
  
“Lew you need to sit down, you’re drunk….wow I can’t believe I’m saying that. “  
  
“HA! You don’t like that I drink! I KNEW IT! By the way, anymore secret boyfriends you want to come clean about?”  
  
“Not too drunk to function it would seem. Are you sure you want to have this conversation now?”  
  
“What better time?”  
  
“Never?”  
  
Lewis threw his sunglasses on the church floor angrily and ran a frustrated hand through his hair. The euphoric effects of the Absinthe were wearing off and he was starting to get aggressive, which wasn’t what he wanted.   
  
He looked up at the face of his concerned boyfriend and couldn’t remember why he was angry. He shouldn’t be yelling at Dick…  
  
Wait! That was his whole problem, he was too infatuated with Dick to ever ask him tough questions. He was so afraid that if they fought, they might break up.   
  
But now he was starting to realize that if he didn’t honestly express himself then he might self destruct.   
  
“No I need to know why you never mentioned him. And why don’t you want me to meet your parents? And why don’t you introduce me to all of your friends? And WHY do you talk to your ex – who didn’t even know you were dating someone by the way- behind my back? Do you even think about how that makes me feel?”  
  
Dick looked like he had been slapped, “Lewis I-”  
  
But Nixon held up a hand to stop him, “You’ve met _my_ stupid parents and you know I would NEVER talk to an ex you didn’t know about. I don’t have friends because I don’t need them. I have you. You’re my _world_ Dick. Do you understand that? No of course you don’t…why else would you do things that you have to know would upset me?”  
  
It was so quiet and Dick looked so hurt that even though he needed to say it all, Lewis wished he could take every harsh word back.  
  
Finally Dick spoke, “I was just protecting myself.”  
  
That…Lewis did not understand, “What?”  
  
“It’s not like we have anything in common. We’re so opposite it almost doesn’t seem possible, and you HATE my friends. You have to think I’m a stiff or something. I just…never knew how serious you were about me. So I didn’t want to integrate every aspect of our lives together, I didn’t want to introduce you to my parents because I was never sure that we would last. Everything seems fine but then a moment comes along where I’m just so sure that you’re ready to move on. I mean I’m never going to enjoy the things that you enjoy, and I don’t want to enable your bad habits, but I don’t want to change you either. I know that one day I’m going to have to choose one of those routes and it’ll ruin everything.”  
  
Lewis shook his head. Was Dick breaking up with him?   
  
“No it won’t! Don’t you get it? I would choose you over anyone Dick. I could never get tired of you. You’re perfect. I don’t want you to be into the things that I’m into, that would make you someone completely different. I love that we’re so different, but I hate that my habits bother you. I’d choose you over them too. When that day comes just say the word, and I’ll stop. I swear. I love you so much, how could you ever doubt how much I love you?”  
  
“We don’t really bring it up.”  
  
“Well I’m bringing it up now. I love you Dick. I like…soul mate love you. Wow that made more sense in the cab...”  
  
Dick just smiled his all knowing smile. “It makes sense to me. I’m sorry…for everything…I was just being insecure.”  
  
Lewis just let out a laugh and wrapped his arms around the only person he’d ever honestly loved, “I’m the insecure one, remember?”  
  
Dick sighed and returned the embrace, “If you say so.”  
  
“Oh and Dick?”  
  
“Yeah?”  
  
“Could you maybe call Buck less?”  
  
“That should be easy, he’s transferring to our school. I can hang out with him anytime. Why? Don’t you like him?”  
  
Nixon just sighed in defeat, “I just ADORE him.”  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Ron had been checking this damn corridor long enough to know that Lipton wasn’t in any of the rooms nor was he just wandering about. Where was he?  
  
Damn he needed to sit…badly. Looking around all he saw was the far off confessional.  
  
Maybe…  
  
Walking over as quietly as he could, he slipped into the empty space where a priest would normally reside and lightly tapped the thin wooden window separating them.   
  
“Hello?” came the confused reply.   
  
Ron just smiled and pulled the window back so that he could see Lipton through the small grate. “This seems kind of ironic.”  
  
“…..Ron?”  
  
Speirs swallowed, dread creeping up through him. What if Lipton still hated him? What if he didn’t want to see him? Why was it that this man always made him lose his nerve?  
  
“Yeah. Carwood I-”  
  
“Are you okay?” Lipton’s voice was still soft despite the panicked edged in it that Ron hoped he wasn’t imagining, “I heard you got hurt. I’ve been going nuts worrying about you!”  
  
  “You were worried?”  
  
“Of course I was. Ron…I know things went badly last time we saw each other…I mean…well I’m sorry I threw that bottle at your head…and locked you out of your hotel room.”  
  
“Forget about it. I deserved it. I am never going to be able to tell you all the regrets I have…about us.”  
  
Lipton let out a deep breath, “I just…I don’t know. I was just overwhelmed by all the drama and I freaked out. I just…I liked you so much and it felt like…I dunno.”  
  
Speirs knew that now was the time to say everything he had been dying to say to Lipton since the last time he had seen him. Or when he had woken up, nursed his hangover and realized that he was gone. So maybe the last time he’d talked to him?   
  
“I know…that I am a detached, cold, mean, violent, irrational asshole. And I know that there’s not really many good qualities to me. But you always made me feel like I could be more than what people perceived me to be. You gave me the opportunity to prove that I could love somebody and I ruined it. I put you through so much stress and I know I don’t deserve a second chance.”   
  
He leaned his head against the wall and closed his eyes, “But I want to be better for you, with you, because of you. I can change and you are the only person I would ever do that for. I just want you to forgive me.”  
  
Ron waited for what felt like forever. When he didn’t get a response he chanced a look through the grate.   
  
Lipton wasn’t there anymore.   
  
Suddenly his door was opening from the outside and Ron wasn’t sure if the light pouring in was coming from the hall or from finally being able to see Lipton’s face.   
  
“I forgive you.”  
  
Ron straightened and smiled, “Just like that?”  
  
The corner of Lipton’s lip curled up and he let out a soft laugh, “I only ever wanted you to ask.”  
  
Ron stood up and pulled him into the room with him. Lipton melted against him and Ron savored the feeling of having him in his arms again.   
  
He felt perfect.   
  
Lipton looked at his face and smirked, “What happened to your face?”  
  
Ron just rolled his eyes, “Babe, Nixon and a Sharpie. That’s what happened.”  
  
Lipton’s smiled faltered and he put a gentle hand to Ron’s bandaged head, “Does it hurt?”  
  
Speirs shook his head lightly, “Nothing hurts anymore.”  
  
“That was so lame.”  
  
Laughing Ron backed Carwood against the wall and moved his hands along his back, before casually slipping one under Lipton’s shirt.  Leaning forwards he pressed their lips together softly.  
  
“I don’t care.”  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Buck couldn’t help but get concerned when the driver began to slow down on a very empty looking street.   
  
“What the hell?”  
  
Suddenly two policemen were rushing out of nowhere and waving their arms in the air, one shouting in Dutch at the driver who quickly got out of the car.   
  
The other spoke in English to them, “We need this vehicle to pursue two suspects that have stolen our police cruiser. You’ll have to stay here.”  
  
Buck was about to ask what they were suspects of if the man knew they had stolen his car….  
Then he saw a red car in the distance.   
  
“Oh...okay.”  
  
Luz grumbled and hopped out after Buck and watched as the officers sped away in their cab.   
  
Buck looked over at Luz, “Well you’ll finally get to walk.”  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Babe wasn’t sure what he was about to bust in on but they were only moments away from the church and he was pretty sure that those cops were after them already.   
  
Whatever he was going to say or do, he was going to have to do it quickly.   
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Dick was starting to get worried after awhile. The wedding was supposed to start in five minutes and he and Nixon were the only ones in the service area.   
  
Suddenly Renee came rushing into the room in all her bridal glory, her two bridesmaids a couple of steps behind. She gave Nixon a confused look, “Lewis?”  
  
Nixon gave her a bright, though somewhat fake, smile, “Hey Renee. You look awfully pretty.”   
  
Well...that part was true. He did like Renee…he just liked Babe more now.  
  
She just shook her head and looked around, “Where’s Eugene?”  
  
“Renee!”  
  
They all turned to see Gene rushing in from the outside hallway. Nixon whistled, “Speak of the devil.”  
  
Gene looked at him, “Nixon?”   
  
Lewis just shrugged as Renee and Gene turned to address one another.   
  
“We cannot get married!”  
  
“I can’t do this!”  
  
That shut them both up.   
  
“Um what?” Nixon asked confused.   
  
Renee put her hand on Gene’s shoulder, “I am not ready for this. I do love you Eugene, but I have my whole future ahead of me, I have a career to think about. I thought this was what I wanted but I was being foolish. I’m so sorry.”  
  
Gene shook his head, “No Renee- I’m sorry. I forced all of this on you because I was running away from the one person who rejected me. It’s not that I don’t love you...”  
  
She smiled at him with tears in her eyes, “Oh Eugene it’s alright.”  
  
They embraced and Dick was pretty sure he had NOT seen that one coming.   
  
At that moment the doors busted open.  
  
“STOP! EVERYBODY STOP!”  
  
Nixon rolled his eyes, “It’s about fucking time you showed up.”  
  
Babe just pointed a finger at him, “Shut up! You never called me.”  
  
“I was busy.”  
  
Gene just looked shocked, “Babe? What are you doing here?”  
  
Babe panted heavily, “Gene I am so sorry I almost threw up on you. I was soooo wasted. I mean really no one should ever let me drink ever again.”  
  
“Huh?”  
  
“I flew all the way over the ocean in a stolen jet with, I have to say, some of the craziest people I have ever met or known. I have been party to the kidnapping and drugging of a congressmen, the assault of a police officer, and the stealing of a car. I got wasted and started singing on a table and you KNOW how awful a singer I am, I’m on the run from both the Belgium and Amsterdam police, I survived a train wreck, stole a car from a drunk guy, and I just stole a police cruiser. And I am pretty sure that I’m about to get arrested. And I did it all just to be with you. I’m in love with you Gene. Please don’t get married.”  
  
Gene’s mouth dropped open before he recovered, “I’m…I’m not.”  
  
Babe leaned his head forward, “I’m sorry-what?”  
  
“I’m not getting married. The only reason I even wanted to get married was because I couldn’t be with you. But now I know I’ll never love anyone else as much as I love you Babe.”  
  
“…Really?”  
  
“Really. Even if you didn’t love me back, you’re the only one I want to be with.”  
  
Babe couldn’t believe he was finally here. After everything…Gene was right there.   
  
And he loved Babe.  
  
He was about to move forward to kiss him when the doors flew open again.   
  
“Nobody move!”  
  
Babe turned around to see two unfamiliar policemen rushing into the church.   
  
“Oh…shit.”  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Everything started to happen too quickly.   
  
The officers rushed in and tried to assess who it was they were supposed to be arresting. One of them roughly grabbed Babe by the arm and started to cuff him.   
  
Gene started to shout, “Take it easy man, he didn’t hurt anyone!”  
  
The officer yelled at him in Dutch and as Gene reached for Babe, who still wasn’t quite cuffed, the officer shoved Babe roughly to the ground.  
  
“Don’t fucking push him!” Gene yelled getting right into the man’s face. The officer shoved him back and Babe jumped up at that moment and socked the officer in the jaw.   
  
Then all Hell broke loose.   
  
The officer punched Babe in the gut, which caused Gene to rush in to pull the officer back. Another cop rushed forward to jerk Gene away.   
  
Renee started to cry and tried to come over to talk to the police but got caught in Babe’s brawl, which resulted in her getting shoved to the ground.   
  
“Watch it, you could’ve hurt her!” Nixon helped her up and pulled her away before shoving the officer himself.    
  
Babe took the opportunity to tackle the cop that Gene was scuffling with to the ground as the doors busted opened again.   
  
Bill looked over to see the two men that had pulled them over. They started to head towards Babe with murder in their eyes.   
  
Hmm join the fight or let Babe get his ass kicked by three cops at once?   
  
Who was he kidding?  
  
Before they could reach Babe he kicked the leg of one of the officers and he fell to the ground, not a moment later the second cop tackled him.   
  
Nixon had apparently done something that caused the officer he shoved to grab him by the front of his shirt and shove him face down as he tried to cuff him.   
  
But then something incredibly awesome happened.  
  
Richard Winters grabbed the officer by his shirt and flung him face first into a nearby pew with a loud thud.   
  
One of the officers trying to subdue Bill ran over to help the now possibly unconscious cop and Babe had to wonder…  
  
“Where the fuck is Speirs when we need him?”  
  
A throat cleared, “Um right here.”  
  
Suddenly all the fighting stopped and they all looked over to see a shirtless Speirs, and a red faced Lipton who was tugging at his clothes in a manner that suggested he had just put them on, and behind them was a very pissed off priest.  
  
He started shouting to the officers in Dutch and everyone screamed, “SPEAK ENGLISH!”  
  
Even Renee said it, more than likely because she knew he could.   
  
“FINE! Arrest these two!”  
  
“What are we arresting THEM for?”  
  
“They were doing unspeakable acts in my confessional!”  
  
That got quite a few responses.  
  
“Oh my God!”  
  
“You guys had sex in a confessional?”  
  
“We didn’t!”  
  
“We did.”  
  
“This is a church for Christ’s sakes!”  
  
“Wow Lip, I didn’t know you had it in you.”  
  
All of a sudden one of the officers seemed to recognize Speirs. “You look really familiar.”  
Ron just shrugged. But the officer worked it out in this head, “You assaulted a policemen in Amsterdam. Oaky I AM going to have to arrest you.”  
  
“No!” cried Lipton.  
  
“The Hell you are!” Bill shouted and jumped to his feet.   
  
Then everyone started fighting again.   
  
The doors opened once more and they didn’t even make it two feet in before Luz was violently elbowed in the face and fell down, and Buck was toppled over by Bill and an officer rolling around on the ground.    
  
One of the English speaking police officers jumped up amid all the chaos, pulled out his gun and fired it into the church ceiling.   
  
Everyone froze.   
  
“ENOUGH!” He shouted, gun still in the air, “If you’re not a woman or a priest, then you are UNDER ARREST!”  
  
“Aw man! What the Hell did I do?” Luz shouted, a hand over his bloody nose.  
  
“I’M SURE YOU DID SOMETHING! NOW EVERYONE GET OUTSIDE BEFORE I SHOOT SOMEBODY!”  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
As the nine of them were trudged out and separately shoved in the back of two police cars and a taxi, Babe couldn’t help but think this was at least better than going to jail alone.   
  
He, Eugene, and Luz were put in the taxi. He looked over at Gene, “Thank you for coming to jail with us.”  
  
Gene smiled, leaned forward and kissed Babe softly, “Anything to be with you Babe.”  
  
Luz rolled his eyes and wished he could be in one of the cop cars with Buck.   
  
  
  
  
  
Buck looked over at Dick’s now purple eye and winced. “You okay Dick? They really did a number on you.”  
  
“Don’t talk to him! Don’t even look at him!”  
  
“Nixon, calm the fuck down.”  
  
Nixon shook his head from the side of Buck that he was sitting on, “No way. As a matter of fact, we’re switching seats. NOW.”  
  
This proved to be rather difficult as Nixon struggled to climb over Buck to separate him from Dick. It probably would have been easier if he hadn’t been handcuffed behind the back.   
  
Dick just sighed as the two men bitched and fought with each other. He bet Lipton didn’t have to put up with anything like this in his cruiser.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
“What do you mean you two hooked up!?”  
  
Ron sunk a little lower into his seat, trapped between the two friends, “Congratulations Bill, you made it a whole 20 minutes without mentioning it. That ripping your tongue out threat still applies.”  
  
“Okay that just slipped out. Look Lip it was nothing. ”  
  
Speirs straightened a little, “Well it wasn’t _nothing_.”  
  
Bill nodded, “Yeah, but it won’t happen again.”  
  
Lipton just nodded and scooted closer to Ron, “Okay…good.”  
  
“I mean unless you guys don’t work out or something.”  
  
“Bill!”  
  
“Sorry, sorry!”  
  
“It’s really done with though. He gave a stupid little speech and everything.”  
  
Lipton’s irritation melted into curiosity, “Bill? A speech? Seriously? What did you say?”  
  
Bill mumbled something under his breath and Lipton just gaped.   
  
“That’s from CASABLANCA!”  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
“Okay so let me get this straight. Buck used to date Dick, but didn’t know he was now dating Nixon, who hates Buck, even though Buck now wants to date Luz, who he met at a bar in Amsterdam, hustling darts? And now he’s moving to our school?” Gene asked and Babe just nodded as they were all ushered into a cell.   
  
“And Ron and Lipton are back together now, but not before Ron and Bill hooked up at the hospital and on the side of the road only after realizing they had a thing for each other after getting trapped in a closet on the train that _crashed_ but Bill isn’t really gay though-he just still has feelings for Ron who really is in love with Lipton?”  
  
“Yeah…”  
  
“And you and Nixon are friends now and you’re the one who drew on everyone’s face?”  
  
“Um…yeah that all sounds right.”  
  
“That’s fucking confusing.”  
  
“Okay you guys are just making us all very uncomfortable by summing this up! We’re all in here y’know!” Nixon shouted from the other side of the cell.   
  
Luz just started laughing his ass off.   
  
Speirs glared, “What the Hell is so funny?”  
  
“I can’t believe that you guys had sex in a confessional!”  
  
Lipton hid his face in Ron’s neck, “We’re never going to escape that.”  
  
Nixon shook his head and pointed at Babe, “I can’t believe you guys stole a cop car!”  
  
Dick smiled, “I can’t believe that we got into a brawl with the police in a church!”  
  
Bill laughed, “I can’t believe you of all people knocked out a cop!”  
  
Babe just laughed and sat down next to Gene, hooking their legs together, “I can’t believe that after all the close calls we had that we all got arrested.”  
  
“Despite everything we still wound up in jail.”  
  
“Just like God intended.”  
  
“I wonder how’ll long we’ll be in here?”  
  
……………  
  
  
  
  
  
  
They only spent one night in jail. As it turned out, Ron’s father had already cleared up the issue with the jet after he figured out that while it was stolen, it wasn’t _exactly_ stolen.  The congressman might want to press charges, but unfortunately when the airport security found them doped up on the plane that thought they were druggies and wouldn’t listen to a word they said.   
  
Renee talked the cops into simply fining Bill and Babe for stealing the cruiser, although Babe wasn’t sure how the Hell she pulled that off.  
  
After a few phone calls Buck and Nixon’s parents wired enough money to pay all of their bail and they got released to the dismay of four very battered and bruised officers who looked like they wanted to take another whack at them all.   
  
  
  
  
Now they were all at the Amsterdam airport getting ready to board their not so stolen jet.   
  
Speirs turned to look at him, “So has everyone decided who’s all going back with us?”  
  
Lipton looked unsure and held up a piece of paper, “I’m going with you but I still have this plane ticket for the end of the summer.”  
  
Nixon snatched it out of his hand, “I’ll take that.”  
  
Dick gave him a puzzled look and Nixon just tugged him close to him and smiled, “We could use a real vacation together. Right?”   
  
Dick nodded, “Absolutely.”  
  
Luz made a gagging noise before turning to Buck, “So what are you going to do?”  
  
Buck shrugged, “I was thinking I’d go back with you guys…get a tour of the place. I’m a little Europed out at this point.”  
  
Luz smirked, “Excellent. I’m not much of a tour guide but I know this great place you can stay.”  
  
“Is that right?”  
  
“Oh yeah… _if you catch my drift_.”  
  
Buck smiled and followed Luz into the jet after waving goodbye to Nixon and Dick.   
  
Bill looked over at Speirs, “You really think you’re going to fly this jet don’t you?”  
  
“Of course I am.”  
  
“You’re drugged off your ass you concussed psychopath.”  
  
“I have an excellent co-pilot,” He hopped up into the jet, Bill following close behind.   
  
“We cannot survive a plane crash too! We’ve built up too much bad karma.”  
  
“Calm down Gonorrhea!”  
  
Gene laughed and turned to Lipton, “I’d keep an eye on that if I were you.”  
  
Lipton just smiled, “I don’t think I have anything to worry about.”  
  
Dick smiled at them both, “I guess you guys should go. I’ll see you in a couple of months. And Gene?”  
  
“Yeah?”  
  
“I knew you’d come around.”  
  
Gene just rolled his eyes with a laugh, “Of course you did.”  
  
The three of them said goodbye before Lipton and Gene headed for the jet. Gene turned around to look at Babe. “Aren’t you coming?”  
  
Babe smiled, “Duh. Just give me a sec.”  
  
Gene nodded and climbed in.  
  
Babe turned to Nixon, “Don’t do anything I might accidentally do.”  
  
“That’s actually excellent advice.”  
  
Babe smiled and hugged Nixon tightly. Nixon sighed, “I’m really proud of you Babe.”  
  
“Thanks. I guess you were right.”  
  
“How is that?”  
  
“Everything worked out just fine.”  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
About four hours into the flight Gene called up from the back, “Hey there’s a mini bar back here! Anyone want anything?”  
  
“NO!”  
  
“HELL no!”  
  
“No fucking thank you.”  
  
“Keep that shit away from your boyfriend! I don’t have anymore clean shirts!”  
  
Gene slowly closed the cabinet before going back over to Babe, “I don’t even want to know do I?”  
  
“Probably not.”  
  
“Hey Babe?”  
  
“Yeah Gene?”  
  
“Thanks for coming after me. Especially now that I know what you had to go through. ”  
  
Babe smiled and pressed their foreheads together, “Wanna know something crazy?”  
  
“What’s that?”  
  
“I’d do it all again in a heartbeat.”


End file.
